FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Contact: Kate Treworgy
Tel: (802) 457-4000
Fax: (802) 457-4004
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WHAT WAS THE APOSTLE PAUL
REALLY TRYING TO SAY?
The Apostle Paul, who wrote many of the books in the New Testament, was a fearless and revolutionary religious innovator. In a society where slaveholding was commonplace and women were little more than servants, he preached a groundbreaking equality founded on a new spiritual identity. Yet Paul diverged from many of Jesus’s own teachings about the world and God’s kingdom, and his writings have been used to justify slavery, defend violence toward women and vilify followers of other religious paths. What was Paul’s core message really about, and how can it be a guide for our own spiritual journey today?
“How alike and unlike were Paul and Jesus? If there were differences between them, what effect did that have on the growth of Christianity?” writes Ron Miller in THE SACRED WRITINGS OF PAUL: Selections Annotated & Explained (SkyLight Paths / July 2007 / Quality Paperback Original / $16.99). “And how can these differences help Christians today find their way forward in the midst of countless new and creative ways of understanding their religion and their spirituality? Answering these questions for ourselves can help us have wisdom in shaping the future course of Christian theology and spirituality.”
Provocative, THE SACRED WRITINGS OF PAUL guides us through the complexities of Paul’s writings using fresh translations from the original Greek and insightful yet unobtrusive facing-page commentary. It explores Paul’s limitations and sometimes harmful legacy, but also highlights Paul’s deep connection with God’s Spirit. This connection led to Paul’s penetrating insights on how to live a life filled with spiritual vigor, experience profound joy even in the face of trouble and understand the fundamental power of love to overcome any obstacle.
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Ron Miller is the chair of the Religion Department at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois, where he has taught for thirty years, and cofounder of Common Ground, an adult education group for interfaith religious study and dialogue since 1975. Miller is the author of many books and articles, including The Gospel of Thomas: A Guidebook for Spiritual Practice, named one of Spirituality & Health’s 50 Best Spiritual Books of the year; The Hidden Gospel of Matthew: Annotated & Explained and Healing the Jewish-Christian Rift: Growing Beyond Our Wounded History (all SkyLight Paths). His website is www.ronmillersworld.org.
THE SACRED WRITINGS OF PAUL: Selections Annotated & Explained
Translation & Annotation by Ron Miller
SkyLight Paths (Woodstock, VT); www.skylightpaths.com; 800-962-4544
Quality Paperback Original / $16.99 / 224 pages / July 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1-59473-213-3 / ISBN-10: 1-59473-213-2
Praise for
THE SACRED WRITINGS OF PAUL
Selections Annotated & Explained
Translation & Annotation by Ron Miller
“Masterful.... Brings Paul to life for the twenty-first century reader who wishes ... to relate [Paul’s] letters to her or his own spiritual quest. [A beneficial] guide to one of the most influential religious writers of all time.”
—Adela Yarbro Collins, PhD, Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation, Yale University Divinity School
“A perceptive account of one of [Christianity’s] greatest figures ... illuminates Paul’s deep spirituality.”
—Andrew Phillip Smith, author, The Lost Sayings of Jesus: Teachings from Ancient Christian, Jewish, Gnostic and Islamic Sources—Annotated and Explained
“People who have difficulty with Paul’s [teachings] will appreciate this book.”
—Beatrice Bruteau, PhD, author, The Holy Thursday Revolution
“Scholarly and spiritual.... Paul’s human weakness [is critiqued] ... yet Paul shines through as provocative, visionary and practical. Challenges the reader to plumb the deepest meanings of [the writings of] this often misunderstood leader in the early Jewish-Christian church.”
—David L. Coppola, PhD, Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding, Sacred Heart University
“Provocative ... opens fresh perspectives for understanding Paul’s message. Challenges readers to read key passages in Paul and to question many [of their own] assumptions. A valuable contribution to Pauline scholarship.”
—Rev. Richard Hauser, sj, professor of theology and director of Christian Spirituality Program, Creighton University
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THE SACRED WRITINGS OF PAUL: Selections Annotated & Explained (5½" x 8½", 224 pp., Quality Paperback Original, ISBN-13: 978-1-59473-213-3 / ISBN-10: 1-59473-213-2, $16.99) is available from Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, Cokesbury, Doubleday, Indigo/Chapters, Waldenbooks, B. Dalton, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and many other booksellers, or directly from SkyLight Paths Publishing, P.O. Box 237, Woodstock, VT 05091; Tel: (802) 457-4000; Fax: (802) 457-4004; www.skylightpaths.com. For credit card orders, call (800) 962-4544. Add $3.95 shipping and handling for the first book, $2.00 for each additional book.