
The First Paul
Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon
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Narrated by:
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Mel Foster
About this listen
Paul is second only to Jesus as the most important person in the birth of Christianity, and yet he continues to be controversial, even among Christians. How could the letters of Paul be used both to inspire radical grace and to endorse systems of oppression - condoning slavery, subordinating women, condemning homosexual behavior?
Borg and Crossan use the best of biblical and historical scholarship to explain the reasons for Paul's mixed reputation and reveal to us what scholars have known for decades: that the later letters of Paul were created by the early church to dilute Paul's egalitarian message and transform him into something more "acceptable." They argue there are actually "Three Pauls" in the New Testament: "The Radical Paul" (of the seven genuine letters), "The Conservative Paul" (of the three disputed epistles), and "The Reactionary Paul" (of the three inauthentic letters). By closely examining this progression of Paul's letters - from the authentic to the inauthentic - the authors show how the apostle was slowly but steadily "deradicalized" to fit Roman social norms in regards to slavery, patriarchy, and patronage. In truth, Paul was an appealing apostle of Jesus whose vision of life "in Christ" - one of his favored phrases - is remarkably faithful to the message of Jesus himself.
©2009 Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Marcus Borg's level of scholarship
- By Diana Johnson on 11-08-24
By: Marcus J. Borg
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The Challenge of Acts
- Rediscovering What the Church Was and Is
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: N. T. Wright
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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This book offers a brief introduction to the Acts of the Apostles. Acts is a substantial book, sitting right in the middle of the New Testament, looking back to the four Gospels and ahead to the mission of the early church. It provides a framework for our understanding of the letters; but it does more than that. It offers a sophisticated and nuanced view of what it means to think of the gospel of Jesus, Israel's Messiah, going out into the world over which Israel's Messiah claims the status of Lord.
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Glad Wright narrated
- By Adam Shields on 12-05-24
By: N. T. Wright
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Render unto Caesar
- The Struggle over Christ and Culture in the New Testament
- By: John Dominic Crossan
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Leading Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, the author of the pioneering work The Historical Jesus, provides new insight into the Christian culture wars which began in the New Testament and persist strongly today. For decades, Americans have been divided on how Christians should relate to government and lawmakers, a dispute that has impacted every area of society and grown more rancorous over the past forty years. But as Crossan makes clear, this debate isn’t new; it can be found in the New Testament itself, most notably in the tensions between Luke-Acts and Revelations.
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Honest, sharp scholarship bogs down
- By Philo on 04-11-22
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The Heart of Christianity
- Rediscovering a Life of Faith
- By: Marcus J. Borg
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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World-renowned Jesus scholar Marcus J. Borg shows how we can live passionately as Christians in today's world by practicing the vital elements of Christian faith. For the millions of people who have turned away from many traditional beliefs about God, Jesus, and the Bible, but still long for a relevant, nourishing faith, Borg shows why the Christian life can remain a transforming relationship with God. Emphasizing the critical role of daily practice in living the Christian life, he explores how prayer, worship, Sabbath, pilgrimage, and more can be experienced as authentically life-giving practices.
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book worth rediscovering for both head and heart
- By connie on 06-30-12
By: Marcus J. Borg
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Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time
- The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith
- By: Marcus J. Borg
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Of the many recent books on the historical Jesus, none has explored what the latest biblical scholarship means for personal faith. Now, in Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg addresses the yearnings of those who want a fully contemporary faith that welcomes rather than oppresses our critical intelligence and openness to the best of historical scholarship. Borg shows how a rigorous examination of historical findings can lead to a new faith in Christ, one that is critical and, at the same time, sustaining.
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first thing he did was deny Christ's deity.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-15-19
By: Marcus J. Borg
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After Jesus, Before Christianity
- A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements
- By: Erin Vearncombe, Brandon Scott, Hal Taussig, and others
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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From the creative minds of the scholarly group behind the groundbreaking Jesus Seminar comes this provocative and eye-opening look at the roots of Christianity that offers a thoughtful reconsideration of the first two centuries of the Jesus movement, transforming our understanding of the religion and its early dissemination.
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Excellent and informative
- By Claire Z. on 04-17-22
By: Erin Vearncombe, and others
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The Embarrassment of Riches
- An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
- By: Simon Schama
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 20 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Simon Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama recreates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators.
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Great!
- By Noe on 12-05-24
By: Simon Schama
What listeners say about The First Paul
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ian Huntington
- 02-24-23
What a relief!
Being raised in a conservative, fundamentalist, evangelical church which unflinchingly insisted on inerrancy of the Bible and substitutionary atonement, Paul’s writings were quoted constantly. I have evolved beliefs that are very much more liberal, left behind a fundamentalist understanding and finding my true self a liberal Episcopalian. Over the years I became increasingly suspicious of Paul’s more conservative passages. Clearly Jesus was a radical teacher but Paul’s writing seemed, at times, antithetical to the radical society changing message of Jesus. What a relief to find that Christ and the original St. Paul were playing from the same play book after all.
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- Kayla
- 05-12-20
A Liberal Paul
I was raised Christian in a conservative household. As an adult, I have struggled to reconcile my personal liberal beliefs with the conservative Paul I was taught about. This book opened my eyes to a whole new way of interpreting Paul's letters, and the structure of the early Christian church! What a fascinating read!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Cameron Frazier
- 08-08-23
Great book! Must read for any believer.
Absolutely necessary reading to truly understand Paul. It his core he was a Jewish Jesus Mystic.
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- D. Griffin
- 05-31-23
Amazing in depth coverage
These two authors never miss! Outstanding of Paul’s life, phases of his transformation and writings. This is a work which needs to be studied not just once read or listened.
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- stinkypete
- 06-03-24
A Redeemed and Glorious Paul
A shining, intelligent and important presentation of "the least of the apostles" - this book aided in my reclaiming and redeeming of Paul from the ugly and conservative traditions of my childhood and my misguided people.
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- david malaguti
- 07-25-23
Paul the Proto-Marxist
Tabor's book was much better.
this one might've been hours shorter..and the politics was a bit much
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