How do the New Testament documents present issues of passion, will, identity, and perception? How did the earliest followers of Jesus understand their experiences, behaviors, and suffering? These questions and more are addressed in this stimulating work by one of the most productive Continental New Testament scholars.

Rather than approaching the New Testament with a Freudian, Jungian, or other modern psychological theory, Berger illuminates historically how peoples of the first century described their human experiences in relation to their encounters with God, Christ, demons, and the power of their own desires and will.