Stephen Westerholm, A Preface to the Study of Paul>/>. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1997). Pp. 128. Reviewed by Erin Rachelle Moran for R.Kraft's RelSt 436 course at UPenn (Spring 1999) Stephen Westerholm is associate professor of biblical studies at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and has previously published on Christian origins and early Jewish- Christian relations as well as on Paul; see his Israel's Law and the Church's Faith: Paul and His Recent Interpreters (Eerdmans 1988). In this book Westerholm analyzes different aspects of Paul's thought from the context of Paul's letter to the Romans. Westerholm breaks the book down into twelve chapters based on different themes he extracts and groups from Romans 1-16. Each chapter in itself is not a commentary on the details of Romans, but by doing a close reading of Romans attempts to show how Paul structured his reality as a Christian. Westerholm justifies his examination of Paul by pointing out that next to Jesus, Paul attracts the most attention of any figure from antiquity. Perhaps if a central theme or thesis of Westerholm's book had to be chosen, it would be answering the question, "Why Paul?" or rather, "What is so big about Paul?" Paul makes for an interesting study, not only psychologically, but also anthropologically and sociologically. Westerholm also adds that Paul did more than any other for the spread of early Christianity; letters in his name comprise half the books of the New Testament; his epistle to the Romans is one of the most influential accounts of the Christian faith ever. Westerholm writes a relatively successful book. He gives a very good overview of Paul's view of Christianity, although it is just that: an overview. The study is by itself not very much in depth (as the title indicates, it is simply a preface), but provides a good starting place for further study of Paul. Despite a lot of tangents and digressions, when he finally gets to his point, he is able clearly and convincingly to make his argument. An interesting note: although he did not state in this book what he considers to be the actual letters written by Paul, when I contacted him by e-mail, he said that the letters that "everyone agrees were written by Paul" are Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon; these are the letters he uses when he writes on Paul's views of a particular topic. I would have preferred to read Westerholm's book with little or no knowledge of Paul. Westerholm does not go nearly as in depth in his analysis of Paul as we have in class, and having read his book after having gone through so much of the course is somewhat of a let down. The book provides a brief overview of Pauline theology taken from what can be found in Romans. Preface to the Study of Paul ideally should be read either before taking this course, or at the latest, pre-Ziesler. It's also a good idea to read the parts of Romans that he talks about in each chapter at the same time. //end//