Rabbi Paul is at once a compelling, highly readable biography and a window on how Jesus' message was transformed from a loosely organized, grassroots peasant movement into a structured religion embraced by millions around the world.

Drawing on Paul's own writings as well as historical and scholarly documents about his life and times, Chilton portrays an all-too-human saint who helped to create both the most beautiful and the most troublesome aspects of the Church. He shows that Paul sought to specify the correct approach to such central concerns as sexuality, obedience, faith, conscience, and spirit, to define religion as an institution, and to clarify the nature of the religious personality - issues that Christians still struggle with today.