The Wellness of St. Paul

By William H. Jones Ph.D.

The Wellness of St. Paul combines some of the studies in Dr. Jones' two other books, The Christian Invasion of Europe and Detour to Damascus. It adds much more insight and offers footnotes for readers to check. The Apostle entered the Bible pages as an unsavoury character, mean, obstreperous, conceited and destructive. He was in a snit of reaction formation, described by Anna Freud as neurotic and victim of his ego's self-protected defence mechanisms. It took God to change him first; then he needed to be willing to do his own personal transformation by recognizing God must do the first part of his healing but that he too was responsible for cleaning up his own act. What he said about others he needed to apply the truth to himself, to work out his "salvation with fear and trembling."He spent the rest of his life seeking and applying wellness, a version of the Jewish concept of shalom, "wholeness."One thing about Paul was his "no quit" personality. He had a sense of humour and liked to create puns. He became clearly open for any and all to see his warts and blemishes. He quickly learned to meet his audiences face-to-face and toe-to-toe. Once he had his own act together, he was able to synthesize the Gospel implications for the early church, as his "epistles" bear witness to his transformation. He accepted who he was. He did not grovel about his missteps or faults but allowed the scars in his blemished personality to remind him that his sins were "nailed to the cross."This book should be useful for church study groups who want to add the "insights" in it, as a supplement of their studies of Acts and Paul's letters to the several destination.It is important to link the fact that Paul was raised early in life as a Hellenist Jew in Tarsus, a Pharisee's child, and that he grew up under the shadow of an overarching Greek mythology prominent in Cilicia. These factors entered into his life in such a way as to deal positively with his many future disparate audiences.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 153043579X
• ISBN13: 9781530435791
• Release Date: March 2016
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.4" x 8.5"