F. Gerald Downing explores the teachings of Paul, arguing that the development of Paul's preaching and of the Pauline Church owed a great deal to the views of the vagabond Cynic philosophers, critics of the Gods and of the ethos of civic society. 'Downing writes with an excitement which ... is itself persuasive. He also writes with a historian's sensitivity to the fragility of all evidence from so remote a date.' - C.J.A. Hickling, Journal of Theological Studies'This is a stimulating and thought-provoking book.' - Christopher Tuckett, Theology