The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon

In this revolutionary follow-up to The Last Week and The First Christmas, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan once again use biblical and historical scholarship to expose the Church's conspiracy to silence Jesus's most faithful disciple, the Apostle Paul.

Scholars have known for decades that some of the letters of Paul in the New Testament were not written by him. Instead, later writers penned the material - writers who were more interested in blunting the radical edge of Paul's teachings, such as his confrontation with the Roman Empire, and his commitment to equality. Borg and Crossan show how the early Church tried to dilute Paul's radical egalitarian message and transform it into something more in line with contemporary doctrine.

Marcus J. Borg is Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University and author of the bestselling Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, The God We Never Knew, and Jesus.

John Dominic Crossan is the author of several bestselling books including God & Empire, The Historical Jesus, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Birth of Christianity, Who Killed Jesus? and The Last Week, co-authored with Marcus Borg. He lives in Minneola, Florida.

"Borg and Crossan reveal a figure who, besides being neither anti-Semitic, anti-sex, nor misogynist, stresses social and political equality among Christians and between them and others. A refreshing and heartening exculpation of a still routinely maligned figure of the first importance to culture and civilization."

- Booklist (starred review)

--Publishers Weekly