Book details

Book description

Saint Paul was not only a religious figure of exceptional power but he was one of the outstanding makers of history. This is the biography of a man who profoundly influenced people of widely divergent beliefs, races and epochs. Without the spiritual earthquake brought about by St Paul, Christianity may never have survived. Yet Paul's importance extends way beyond the religious field. His effect upon Western thought has been immeasurable. This is the man Michael grant describes in his book. Paul's own authentic voice can still be heard in his surviving letters or Epistles, which not only contain numerous autobiographical clues, but are the earliest Christian documents in existence and rank high among the most valuable literature the world has ever produced. Michael Grant considers in detail this extant literature along with the material of Paul's four evangelical journeys and he discusses the reasons for the spectacular conversion on the road to Damascus. As in The Jews of the Roman World and Herod the Great, Michael Grant brings together research on Israel on the one hand and Greece and Rome on the other, believing that it is necessary to study these cultures in conjunction, since Paul was a Jew who wrote in Greek and was a Roman citizen. Michael Grant (1914-2004) was a highly successful and renowned historian of the ancient world. He held many academic posts including those of Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh University; Vice Chancellor of The Queen's University, Belfast and Vice Chancellor of the University of Khartoum. He was a Doctor of Letters at Dublin and a Doctor of Laws at Belfast. He has also been President of the Classical Association of England, the Virgil Society and the Royal Numismatic Society, and was a Medallist of the American Numismatic Society.