An Anomalous Jew

<DIV><I>Lively well-informed portrait of the complex figure who was the apostle Paul</I><BR />  <BR /> Though Paul is often lauded as the first great Christian theologian and a champion for Gentile inclusion in the church in his own time he was universally regarded as a strange and controversial person. In this book Pauline scholar Michael Bird explains why.<BR />  <BR /><I>An Anomalous Jew</I> presents the figure of Paul in all his complexity with his blend of common and controversial Jewish beliefs and a faith in Christ that brought him into conflict with the socio-religious scene around him. Bird elucidates how the apostle Paul was variously perceived — as a religious deviant by Jews as a divisive figure by Jewish Christians as a purveyor of dubious philosophy by Greeks and as a dangerous troublemaker by the Romans. Readers of this book will better understand the truly anomalous shape of Paul’s thinking and worldview.<BR />  </DIV>