In this lucid account of the radical impact of the crucifixion of Jesus, Paul Minear examines three critical texts that changed the course of history: Paul's Romans, the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews, and Matthew's Gospel. Penetrating the inner world of these authors, and finding illuminating connections among them, Minear demonstrates how their revolutionary understanding of creation, worship, and vocation reflected their belief in a new age - and how their words have at times been used to justify a reactionary political ethic, a highly routinized ecclesiasticism, and a radical apocalyptic sectarianism.