ON THE WAY: RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND COMMON LIFE IN THE GOSPELS AND LETTERS OF PAUL . By   Kevin B.   McCruden  .  Winona, MN:  Anselm Academic ,  2020 . Pp. 209. Paper, $19.95.

Modern introductions to the NT at times devolve into amateur histories of early Christianity. Such surveys tend to treat NT literature as mere fodder for historical reconstruction. They focus on the realities depicted in the text, as opposed to those presumed by the text’s existence. McCruden deftly avoids this foible by treating the NT documents as literary articulations of shared religious experience. His purview consists less of personages and events described in such texts and more on the communities behind them whose lived experience gave rise to the “articulations” which comprise the NT. For this reason, his surveys of various NT documents, which include the four canonical gospels and six of Paul’s uncontested letters, are self- consciously quite selective. Each chapter, however, contains enough scholarly signaling to orient readers to the vast land-scape of modern NT studies. Especially helpful in McCruden’s work are his uniform chapter conclusions, which feature a summary, questions for review and reflection, and a bibliography. Ultimately, with no chapter exceeding thirty pages and with its elegant yet accessible prose, McCruden’s work is an invaluable introduction to the NT for students and lay readers alike. While readers accustomed to the types of surveys mentioned above might shiver at McCruden’s methodology (i.e., using the experiences of the texts’ original “users” as an overriding interpretive lens), his treatment of the NT as an  articulation of religious experience  appears quite congenial to confessional use. In short, college and graduate school professors, Christian teachers and ministers, and lay readers interested in Christian history and spirituality would be hard pressed to find a NT introduction more appealing than McCruden’s.

Jonah Bissell    Freeport, ME