This volume investigates the respective theologies of the Letters to the
Colossians and the Ephesians, and in so doing provides an accessible
introduction to the themes and significance of these New Testament
books. A. J. M. Wedderburn examines the background to Colossians, and
considers both its readers' situation and that of its author. He asks
whether the proponents of the teaching against which this letter is
written were Christians, putting forward their views as the true form of
Christianity (as in Galatia), or whether they existed outside the
Christian community as a seductive alternative to it. Andrew T. Lincoln
examines in turn the authorship of Ephesians, and tries to explain the
letter's strategy of persuasion and the key elements of its teaching
about the new identity of the Christian believer. The similarities and
differences between the thought of Ephesians and that of Paul are
thereby set out clearly. Both sections of the book reflect on the
relevance of these letters for today.