Here Jerome Murphy-O'Connor presents a completely new, and much more vivid and dramatic account of the life of Paul than has ever previously been attempted. From his childhood in Tarsus and his years as a student in Jerusalem to the successes and failures of his ministry, this biography has no peer in terms of its detailed reconstructions of Paul's movements and motives. Traditionally, the Acts of the Apostles has provided the framework for the lives of Paul. In recent years, however, the historical value of the Acts has been called into question. Despite the accuracy of many details, they have been linked in ways which reflect the interests of Luke rather than objective reality. Critical assessment is called for if they are to be incorporated into a life of Paul. The prime source for a reconstruction of the Apostle's life must be his own writings. Recent advances in the study of the letters have brought to light new depths which enables them to be used for biographical purposes. The originality of this book lies in the combination of these two approaches, which are reinforced by close attention to the social and cultural aspects of Paul's ministry as revealed by archaeology and contemporary texts—and it transforms a fountain of theological ideas into a human being.

For someone who has exercised such a profound influence on Christian theology, Paul remains a shadowy figure behind the barrier of his complicated and difficult biblical letters. Debates about his meaning have deflected attention from his personality, yet his personality is an important key to understanding his theological ideas. This book redresses the balance. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor's disciplined imagination, nourished by a lifetime of research, shapes numerous textual, historical, and archaeological details into a colourful and enjoyable story of which Paul is the flawed but undefeated hero. This chronological narrative offers new insights into Paul's intellectual, emotional, and religious development and puts his travels, mission, and theological ideas into a plausible biographical context. As he changes from an assimilated Jewish teenager in Tarsus to a competitive Pharisee in Jerusalem and then to a driven missionary of Christ, the sometimes contradictory components of Paul's complex personality emerge from the way he interacts with people and problems. His theology was forged in dialogue and becomes more intelligible as our appreciation of his person deepens. In Jerome Murphy-O'Connor's engaging biography, the Apostle comes to life as a complex, intensely human individual.

Critical Lives: Mother Teresa will cover: worldly wealth-the privileged childhood of Agnes Goinxha Bejaxhiu, the influence of her father's mysterious death, and the impact of her mother's guidance; the vision-her stay in the mountains of Darjeeling and her calling from God to serve the "poorest of the poor"; Calcutta-the formation of the Mission of Charity, the Home for the Dying, and her work with society's unwanted; persecution-attacks by Hindu priests and Marxist politicians.; fame-Mother Teresa's work is the subject of a BBC documentary, she becomes famous and wins the Nobel Peace Prize; confrontation and criticism-her fame results in ridicule from leftist factions in the Catholic church and from feminist groups, and allegations of her unethical business practices surface; and canonization-her failing years, beatific vision, death, and postmortem miracles.

He was relatively unknown in his lifetime, but Karl Marx’s theories about society, economics, and politics changed the world, led to the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union and the creation of the People’s Republic of China, and inspired variants from Leninism and Stalinism to Trotskyism and Maoism. Marx is one of the most influential thinkers of the modern age, but in recent times “Marxism” has become a vague, contestable, and uncertain term. In this concise, accessible book, Paul Thomas casts a clarifying light on Marx’s life and writings, providing a cogent introduction to a contemporary audience. Illuminating Marx’s development as a critical thinker and revolutionary politician, Thomas explores how the events of Marx’s life influenced his doctrines. Thomas follows Marx from his birth into a wealthy family in Prussia, to his period of study of philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin and his subsequent work as a journalist for radical newspapers in Cologne and Paris, where he began to develop the concepts that would lead to Marxism. As Marx found himself exiled to Brussels and finally to London, Thomas illustrates how he was inspired by his relationships with other socialist thinkers, particularly Friedrich Engels, and the tumultuous and fluctuating state of the governments in Europe. These experiences and their influence on Marx inspired The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, along with the many other books and pamphlets that continue to be read and discussed today. A valuable resource for anyone trying to understand the governments, wars, and movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Karl Marx is an enlightening book about this potent thinker and the world that created him.

Born the son of a village stonemason and a cook, Hardy made himself the best-known English author of his day. Outwardly uneventful, his personal life was interesting chiefly as raw material for his writings.

How did Paul use his secretaries? Did he rely on co-authors? Did his rhetorical education affect the way he organised his material? This book confronts these questions on the basis of extensive quotations from classical Greek and Latin authors. A synoptic survey of the beginnings and ends of the letters brings out the extent to which Paul both used and adapted current epistolary conventions. The intention of the book is to humanize the Pauline letters and make their complex theology less daunting. (Adapted from back cover).

Nietzsche and Freud saw Christianity as metaphysical escapism, with Nietzsche calling the religion a "Platonism for the masses" and faulting Paul the apostle for negating more immanent, material modes of thought and political solidarity. Integrating this debate with the philosophies of difference espoused by Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ward Blanton argues that genealogical interventions into the political economies of Western cultural memory do not go far enough in relation to the imagined founder of Christianity. Blanton challenges the idea of Paulinism as a pop Platonic worldview or form of social control. He unearths in Pauline legacies otherwise repressed resources for new materialist spiritualities and new forms of radical political solidarity, liberating "religion" from inherited interpretive assumptions so philosophical thought can manifest in risky, radical freedom.