Paul: His Story. By Jerome Murphy-O'Connor. Pp. xvi + 259. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. isbn 0 19 926653 0 and 0 19 928384 2. Paper £9.99/$16.95.

Abstract

This is a strange, enjoyable, frustrating, and ultimately puzzling book. Murphy-O’Connor presumes the data of Paul's life as he sought to establish them in his 1996 book Paul: A Critical Life, and seeks to infuse them with life. He does this by creating a strong narrative line for Paul's life and imagining the inner life of the apostle as he followed this narrative line. This requires a good deal of imagination and speculation. This is not, however, a historical novel. Murphy-O’Connor seeks to avoid this sort of genre by not creating ‘highly specific situations or imagined dialogue’ (p. ix). I am not sure it matters whether he succeeds in this or not. This is because I do not know of any other attempt by a scholar to do what Murphy-O’Connor does. The result is a very readable, lively, and engaging story. Murphy-O’Connor is well placed to have taken on this task. He is deeply familiar with the social and material structures of the Greco-Roman world. Indeed, some will say that he reduces every theological cause or explanation to a social and material one. He understands the significance of geography, weather, and climate for someone who moved great distances in the first century on foot or by boat. Indeed, to my mind, the most compelling parts of the story are Murphy-O’Connor's accounts of specific journeys from place to place and the great amounts of time, resources, and thought needed to move about successfully and safely in Paul's world. Finally, it must be said that Murphy-O’Connor is a good storyteller. His Paul is a living, breathing character, thoughtful, passionate, and subtle as well as rash, self-absorbed, and sometimes foolish.