Interesting novel on the life of St. Paul and the spread of early Christianity, as told by two alternating co-narrators: Paul himself and Luke, his devoted disciple and amanuensis. Although I realize there was a lot of literary license, e.g., Paul's childhood, personalities and physical descriptions of characters. I thought there was no excuse for the Pantheon in Athens, Jesus growing up on "Mary's farm", women at a Mithraic worship service. [Mithraism was a men's-only religion and the uninitiated would have been barred, anyhow.] Fact-checking could have been better for historical details such as these examples. I never realized it, but as the author stated in his Note at the end, only seven of the thirteen Pauline epistles in the N.T. were actually written by Paul and the author names them; the others were probably written later by people who were followers. I thought the map of "The World of the Apostle Paul" a nice touch, with the places Paul travelled to indicated. ( )

Have you ever wondered what it’d be like to hear an honest account of Saint Paul’s life? I mean, one can only glean so much from the theology of the New Testament; I’m left wondering: What would Paul say if I had a beer with him?

Jay Parini, a Guggenheim Fellow, pursues creative writing in the form of poetry, biography, and fiction, and he has written an insightful account into the person who is responsible for the Christian religion in the West. Parini shows extreme care and respect in this account of the Apostle Paul as he tells the tale alternating from Luke’s point of view to Paul’s point of view.

Although some may reject the more scandalous parts of Parini’s take on Paul (e.g., on Paul’s rejection of a sexual life), Parini does not stray far from the historical tale as originally told by Luke. Instead of idealizing the text as an authority, Parini glances into Paul’s personality by using an acute knowledge of human nature. He sees Paul’s main theological insight (shared during each baptism): “In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free.”

As historical fiction, Parini is able to interject his poet’s insight into Paul while still dwelling on the basic history. During Paul’s “wilderness period,” Parini sees Paul amongst the Essenes, and in Asia Minor and Greece, he portrays the ancient world in an accurate and well-researched manner. In the afterword, he credits leading contemporary scholars (and the right ones!) for his historical knowledge.

After reading this book, I feel I know Paul as a person better. He is less ideal, less abstract, more real, more emotional. Readers seeking to understand the Christian religion better should spend some time in Parini’s work. He has a good feel for the religious instinct in humanity, and he respects its written products enough not to offend. ( )

I decided to read this book for 2 reasons. I liked the review in the WSJ and last summer when I read Circe I really liked learning about mythology which is a gap in my education. Religion is also a gap in my education so I thought that by reading The Damascus Road I would fill in that gap a little bit. And I did. I often stopped to research on the internet and was amazed at what I learned as well as what I didn't know. Having said all that, the book did get repetitive. How many iterations of Paul's Damascus Road miracle did we have to hear. How many different towns did he go to where the same thing happened over and over. And I discovered that I really didn't like Paul. He seemed arrogant and self-centered--hardly traits one would expect in an apostle. It was worth reading but only for the advancement of my education. ( )