Recent scholarship has postulated "hidden criticism" in the letters of the apostle. But how can we decide, in a methodologically sound way, whether such a counter-imperial message lies beneath the surface of the text? Christoph Heilig suggests several analytical steps for examining this paradigm and concludes that the hypothesis that we can identify critical "echoes" of the Roman Empire in Paul's letters needs to be modified if it is to be maintained. He encourages a reevaluation of Pauline passages in light of Paul's engagement with ideas from his Roman environment.