Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?: A Narrative Approach to the Problem of Pauline Christianity - Paperback

by J. R. Daniel Kirk (Author)

Readers of the Bible are often drawn to Jesus's message and ministry, but they are not as positively inclined toward Paul. What should people who love Jesus do with Paul? Here Pauline scholar J. R. Daniel Kirk offers a fresh and timely engagement of the debated relationship between Paul's writings and the portrait of Jesus contained in the Gospels. He integrates the messages of Jesus and Paul both with one another and with the Old Testament, demonstrating the continuity that exists between these two foundational figures. After laying out the narrative contours of the Christian life, Kirk provides fresh perspective on challenging issues facing today's world, from environmental concerns to social justice to homosexuality.

Back Jacket

A Storied Gospel for Followers of Jesus

"If a book about Jesus and Paul could ever be a page-turner, this is that book. Daniel Kirk invites us to learn from Paul as a faithful interpreter of Jesus, dispelling frequent misinterpretations of both the Lord and his apostle. As Kirk himself says, the heart of this volume is the claim that both Jesus and Paul tell the story of Israel's God as a narrative that includes you, me, and the whole created order. If we listen to his wise counsel, we will become more faithful communities of the cross-shaped, life-giving gospel."
--Michael J. Gorman, The Ecumenical Institute of Theology, St. Mary's Seminary & University

"For a book to wed careful New Testament study with clear and challenging pastoral application makes it noteworthy. What makes this book exceptional is that Kirk goes far beyond even this. He addresses a complex and commonly felt set of controversies about Jesus, Paul, women, sexuality, and homosexuality and does so in particularly careful, unflinching ways. He earns the reader's trust by demonstrating an interpretive manner that both honors Scripture and wrestles with it. Any opinionated reader sure about Jesus or Paul needs to listen again and will find this book to be a gift that speaks to the academy, to the church, and to those far beyond the walls of both."
--Mark Labberton, Fuller Theological Seminary

"The perceived tensions between the presentation of the life and message of Jesus contained in the Gospels and Paul's account of that message are well documented and have been the subject of much historical and theological wrestling. In this volume Daniel Kirk outlines a narrative approach to Pauline Christianity that deconstructs some common and problematic assumptions as well as presents a compelling vision of Paul's gospel that is in deep continuity with the message of Jesus. In so doing, he renders a Paul who speaks powerfully to the church of the twenty-first century and the world to which it is called to bear witness."
--John R. Franke, First Presbyterian Church, Allentown, PA

Author Biography

J. R. Daniel Kirk (PhD, Duke University) is associate professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary's Northern California campus in Menlo Park, California. He is the author of Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God as well as numerous articles.