Death and Resurrection of Identity: A Theological-Psychological Portrait of Apostle Paul

How does a man who hunted the followers of Jesus become the apostle who carried their faith across the world?Saul of Tarsus held the coats while Stephen was stoned. A few years later he lay under the stones himself, outside the walls of Lystra, and then rose and went back into the city. Between those two moments lies one of the most remarkable changes in human history: the death of one identity and the slow resurrection of another.In Death and Resurrection of Identity, Arthur A. Tiger walks beside Paul through the whole of that change:a boyhood on the border between the Jewish and Greek worlds in Tarsusthe zeal of a young Pharisee trained at the feet of Gamalielthe light at noon on the Damascus road, and three days in the darkAnanias, who laid his hands on his enemy and called him "e;Brother"e;the hidden years in Arabia, when every page of Scripture had to be read againthe beatings, shipwrecks, and prison cells of a man who had become what he once huntedthe quarrel at Antioch, the altar to an unknown god, and the letters written in chainsDrawing on Scripture, history, and what psychology can tell us about how people change, the book asks the questions any honest reader would ask. Was it real, or a trick of the mind? Can a past that cannot be undone become part of who we are without ruling us? Why does deep change so often pass through darkness? And what did Paul mean when he wrote, "e;It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"e;?This is a book of reflection rather than a textbook. It takes Paul's story seriously as faith and as history, looks honestly at its human side, and leaves room for what cannot be explained.For anyone who has wondered whether a person can really change, how to live with a past that cannot be undone, and whether grace can reach even the darkest part of a life.