Kevin B. Mccruden, On the Way: Religious Experience and Common Life in the Gospels and Letters of Paul (Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2020). Pp. 209. $19.95.

Kevin McCruden’s book has the aim of making NT studies relevant for the lived experience of students. With this goal in mind he investigates the subjects of religious experience and common life in the Gospels and Pauline letters. According to McC., “The essential point of the study is that these writings function, at their most fundamental level, to articulate powerful experiences of personal encounter that result in the commitment to embody new patterns of living within the community” (p. 10).

In the first chapter, McC. explains what he means by religious experience and the common life. Religious experience is said to be very personal, life-changing, and relational, involved in encountering a reality that is wholly Other. It is also “of the fundamental faith claim of the first Christians that Jesus was a living presence who embodies the ultimate purposes of God” (p. 28). The common life is one that is communal (not individualistic) and characterizes the sensibilities of NT authors. This means that such a life is highly concerned about personal faith commitments and living out those commitments in the midst of community.

The next four chapters cover the Gospels, beginning with Mark. After this, in chap. 6, McC. deals with reconstructing the historical Paul, Paul in Acts, and 1 Thessalonians. Then in chap. 7, McC. covers religious experience and common life as they relate to par- ticipation, ethics, and Paul’s imprisonment (in Philippians, Philemon, and Galatians). A final chapter addresses Paul’s responses to the Corinthians and Romans. Similar patterns are followed for each chapter including a section on the literary and structural features of the biblical writing (Gospels), the historical context (Mark, Matthew, Paul), and samples of religious experience and the common life throughout. The chapters routinely end with a summary, “Questions for Review,” which may be useful for quizzes or exams; “Questions for Reflection,” which may be helpful to prompt in-class discussions; and “Further Read- ing.” Sources listed in the latter include a mixture of scholarly monographs and commentaries. One setback here is that many of these titles were published decades ago, which means that undergraduate students—a number of them not even alive when these books first hit the market—might perceive these works to be rather dated.

Among McC.’s topics that support his thesis are the identity of Jesus as Son of God, the redefinition of family in Mark’s Gospel, kingdom values from the Sermon on the Mount, parables of the Good Samaritan and the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman, Paul’s participation in Christ, faith and Torah relationship, the inversion of power in 1 Corinthians, and the strong and weak members in the community of Rome. Students will appreciate the various pictures and ways McC. compares biblical topics with popular modern examples such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s premonitions in his mountaintop speech, and Dietrich Bonheoffer’s teaching on the cost of discipleship.

McCruden states at the outset that he makes no claim about giving a definitive treatment of religious experience and the common life, and the slender size of his work attests to the selective way he addresses the sources. He is also candid about his intention to employ critical contemporary methods in scholarship and to honor “the complexity inherent in the origin and function of the scriptural text” (p. 24). An example of this is the way he distinguishes between modern and ancient forms of biography with the Gospels reflecting the latter—such narratives were rarely comprehensive and did not have as their primary goal historical objectivity.

Problematic with McC.’s approach is that sometimes he does not discuss formidable alternative viewpoints; I noticed this especially in the Pauline chapters. For example, he states Krister Stendahl’s assertion that Paul was “called” rather than “converted” (p. 147) without mentioning Alan Segal or others who contest the claim. Another example is that he sees the Lucan Paul’s rhetoric in Acts as a foil to Paul’s own disavowal of rhetorical ability in 1–2 Corinthians (p. 138). But there is no acknowledgment that this language may simply reflect the Corinthian perspective of Paul’s oral deliveries when compared with his rivals and Apollos, and, rather than disavowing his skills, Paul reacts with self- deprecation similar to rhetoricians like Dio Chrysostom (Or. 42.3). When McC. states that Paul is “non-controversial” with regard to Jewish customs in Acts (pp. 139–40), how then do we interpret his being stoned and beaten by his Jewish opponents in Acts 14 and 21?

Alternative viewpoints are extremely helpful for students to think critically about biblical interpretation and to prompt an examination of the texts for themselves. When only one side is given a voice, however, critical methods and complexity are not being very well honored. Despite such shortcomings, this book is still a useful resource when it comes to reading NT texts through the lens of religious experience and common life.