This is a marvelous book. Students will use it to find their way through the many different approaches to early Christian texts currently being pursued. Teachers will use it as the primary text for the standard course in New Testament criticism ("exegesis"). Scholars of Christian origins will use it to render utterly honest readings of their texts as social data for redescription. And the guild of New Testament studies will learn the steps for dancing at last in public on the stage of cultural critique. Bravo Vernon! You have written a book that shows why rhetorical savvy must call the tune for the next time around. Let the music begin.

—Burton L. Mack, School of Theology at Claremont
(from the back cover)