Reviewed by: Some Surprises from the Apostle Paul by William O. Walker, Jr Patrick Gray william o. walker, jr., Some Surprises from the Apostle Paul (Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2017). Pp. xv + 133. Paper $19. For the better part of the last two centuries, there has been a brisk business in books on the supposed errors and outrages of the apostle Paul. Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of a smaller but nonetheless robust cottage industry in responding to these attacks, not by defending traditionial readings of Paul’s letters but by arguing that they have been misunderstood in one way or another. William O. Walker Jr. belongs in the latter category. This slim volume originated as a series of lectures delivered to lay audiences, and about half of the chapters have appeared previously in The Fourth R, a publication of the Westar Institute. The “unlearning process” (p. 115) through which W. seeks to lead his readers is set out in ten brief chapters. Among the topics he treats are the historical Jesus, repentance and forgiveness, justification, eschatology, universal salvation, women, sex, homosexuality, interpolations in the Pauline letters, and Paul and other NT authors. Most of the “surprises” catalogued here will already be familiar to scholars and even many nonspecialists. That Paul did not write all of the letters ascribed to him; that his beliefs may have changed or developed over the course of his career; that he says very little about the earthly life of Jesus; that books like Acts and James may present Paul differently from how he presents himself; that Paul did not unambiguously accept the institution of slavery; and that Pauline references to homosexual behavior are complex and perhaps refer to different phenomena than those usually associated with homosexuality in modern contexts are views that command a broad consensus among scholars. Even the pistis Christou debate, which is often discussed in connection with the New Perspective on Paul, has slowly filtered out of the precincts of the academy and come to the attention of theologically curious readers. W. arrives at a few of his pleasant surprises—for example, that Paul is not anti-Semitic, anti-sex, or misogynistic—by way of assigning the unpleasant views to Deutero-Pauline texts or locating them in interpolated passages. (The author goes beyond the consensus in maintaining that interpolations include not only 1 Cor 14:34–35 and 2 Cor 6:14–7:1 but also Rom 1:18–2:29; 1 Corinthians 13; 15:29–34; 2 Cor 3:7–18.) Whether or not they are satisfied by the answers on offer, the pastors and laypersons who make up the intended audience will find in this volume an engaging introduction to some of the thornier questions arising from the writings of a thinker who has himself been a thorn in the side of readers through the ages. [End Page 221] Patrick Gray Rhodes College, Memphis, TN 38112 Copyright © 2017 The Catholic Biblical Association of America