Murphy-O'Conner's book, Paul the Letter Writer, reminds me why I never want to go into Biblical scholarship. It is too technical. I find this kind of scholarship to be tedious, looking for the one bolt that will dismantle the entire Golden Gate Bridge - studying for hours the one word that destroys a colleague's theory. I much prefer a more speculative, innovative study, like theology, where concepts must be grasped rather than grammatical constructions.
The book, though one of the more boring that I've read recently, certainly does a good job explaining form of Paul's letters. Murphy-O'Conner spends much of the book relating Paul's letters to others in his day. Rhetoric and cultural norms in letter-writing seem to be the focus of the book.
Overall there is not too much for me to say about this book. If you are interested in the world of Biblical Studies and like searching tediously through detail to find that one lynch pin, I totally recommend this book. If you are not one of those people, I would check it out, breeze through it quickly so that you can understand what goes into the study. It is a great resource, and though would never be on my top one-hundred, chances are I will end up using it as a source later on down the road.
PS. I will start including what class I'm reading books for if they it is for school. This book was for New Testament: Acts-Revelation from Dr. Scholer.
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