Paul's teachings are vital to understanding the Christian gospel - his letters, says Richard Longenecker, are second in importance only to the words of Jesus - so the turbulent, long-running controversy over contrasting interpretations of Paul's message takes on crucial importance. Longenecker's Paul, Apostle of Liberty stands as a significant, constructive evangelical study of Paul's theology, including the creative tension between law and liberty that runs throughout his thought.

When this book was originally published in 1964, Longenecker then presciently anticipated several subsequent debates, addressing many of the same questions that such scholars as E. P. Sanders and Richard Hays did years later. This new edition of Paul, Apostle of Liberty includes a foreword by Douglas Campbell and a lengthy addendum by Longenecker discussing the major developments in Paul studies over the past fifty years.