Why must Christians tell the world the Good News? Readers discover the answer to this vital, timely question through an examination of Paul's words.

Although Paul's writings have been studied closely by missiologists, surprisingly the missionary dimension of his theology has not always been recognized. Since the 1960s, however, there has been a paradigm shift and the notion that Paul was both a missionary and a theologian has gained ground among biblical scholars. This book is a tightly woven and highly developed Pauline theology of mission and evangelism for college and seminary students. - Publisher.

In this original introduction to Paul's life and thought Sanders pays equal attention to Paul's fundamental convictions and the sometimes convoluted ways in which they were worked out.

Robert L. Plummer and John Mark Terry edit this collection of entry points into the missionary methods of the Apostle Paul. Conducting a major reappraisal of Roland Allen?s Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours? Michael Bird, Eckhard Schnabel and others reconsider the relevance of Paul's missionary activities for the church today.

The mission of the apostle Paul, to proclaim the gospel to the nations, continues to be of vital relevance for the Christian church at the beginning of the twenty-first century. By Paul's own testimony, the gospel he was set apart to preach focused on Jesus Christ - crucified and risen - as the fulfilment of God's promises (Romans 1:1-3). If we are to be true to the apostle, we must seek to understand his mission and message from the perspective of biblical theology. This impressive collection of essays explores facets of such a perspective, under four broad headings: the Old Testament background to Paul's mission, New Testament studies, the wider context of the world in which Paul's message was proclaimed, and the use of that message in history and contemporary thought. The essays offer fresh and important contributions to Pauline studies. They were commissioned in honour of Peter T. O'Brien (Vice Principal, Moore Theological College, Sydney), who has made Paul's concerns his own through distinguished scholarship and personal ministry. Book jacket.

The first detailed exegetical treatment of Paul’s letters from the emerging discipline of missional hermeneutics, Michael Gorman’s Becoming the Gospel argues that Paul’s letters invite Christian communities both then and now to not merely believe the gospel but to become the gospel and, in doing so, to participate in the life and mission of God. Showing that Pauline churches were active public participants in and witnesses to the gospel, Gorman reveals the missional significance of various themes in Paul’s letters. He also identifies select contemporary examples of mission in the spirit of Paul, inviting all Christians to practice Paul-inspired imagination in their own contexts.

Did Paul expect his churches to engage in evangelistic activity which mirrored his own? Or have modern readers of the Bible wrongly projected Paul's apostolic passion upon the communities that he founded? Such is the charge of several recent authors, and if their thesis is correct nothing could have larger implications for how the modern church engages in mission. In this book, Robert L. Plummer engages in a careful study of Paul's letters to determine if the apostle expected the communities to which he wrote to engage in outward-directed missionary activity. Plummer helpfully summarizes the discussion to date on the debated issue, judiciously handles contested texts, and provides a way forward in addressing this critical question. While admitting that Paul rarely explicitly commands the communities he founded to evangelize, Plummer amasses significant incidental data to provide a convincing case that Paul did indeed expect his churches to engage in outward-directed missionary activity. Throughout the study, Plummer progressively builds a theological basis for the church's mission that is both compelling and distinctively Pauline.