which, launched in the resurrection, is to be completed in the final triumph, which is yet to come. Second, Beker proposed that in Paul we find a rich mixture of this coherent overall theme and of the varied expressions called forth by the ‘contingent’ situations to which his letters were addressed. The latter was an important point in itself, arguing that Paul was not merely a situational thinker, trimming his sails to every wind. But the former is the theme which has now come into prominence not