Combining trenchant criticism with careful analysis, Luke Johnson calls for a radically new direction in New Testament studies, one that can change the way we view the entire phenomenon of early Christianity. In three fascinating probes of early Christianity—examining baptism, speaking in tongues, and meals in common—Johnson illustrates how a more wholistic approach opens up the wolrd of healings and religious power, of ecstasy and spirit—in short, the religious experience of real persons. Early Christian texts, he finds, reflect lives caught up in and defined by a power not in their control but engenedered instead by the crucified and raised Messiah Jesus.