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The Least of These: Paul and the Marginalized
Jesus cared for the least, but did Paul?
The apostle Paul has a reputation for being detached from the concerns of the poor and powerless. In this book, Carla Swafford Works demonstrates that Paul’s message and ministry are in harmony with the teaching of Jesus. She brings to light an apostle who preaches and models good news to the “least of these”—the poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, and the vulnerable.
The Least of These begins by highlighting the presence of the marginalized in Paul’s ministry by looking at poverty in Paul’s churches, the involvement of slaves and freedpersons in the community, and the role of women in the Pauline mission. Works then examines the significance of the marginalized in Pauline theology by investigating how the apostle employs metaphors of the “least.”
Like Jesus, Paul cared deeply for people at the margins. Paul’s ministry is consistent with that of Jesus. Both men cared for the poor. Paul served the least in his mission, modeling his apostolic ministry after the cross of Christ. Works shows that Paul, far from being an abstract thinker, was a practical theologian teaching a message and leading a life of compassion, kindness, and care.
The apostle Paul has a reputation for being detached from the concerns of the poor and powerless. In this book, Carla Swafford Works demonstrates that Paul’s message and ministry are in harmony with the teaching of Jesus. She brings to light an apostle who preaches and models good news to the “least of these”—the poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, and the vulnerable.
The Least of These begins by highlighting the presence of the marginalized in Paul’s ministry by looking at poverty in Paul’s churches, the involvement of slaves and freedpersons in the community, and the role of women in the Pauline mission. Works then examines the significance of the marginalized in Pauline theology by investigating how the apostle employs metaphors of the “least.”
Like Jesus, Paul cared deeply for people at the margins. Paul’s ministry is consistent with that of Jesus. Both men cared for the poor. Paul served the least in his mission, modeling his apostolic ministry after the cross of Christ. Works shows that Paul, far from being an abstract thinker, was a practical theologian teaching a message and leading a life of compassion, kindness, and care.
- GenresTheologyNew Testament
205 pages, Paperback
Published January 16, 2020
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145 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 22, 2025
In her book, The Least of These: Paul and the Marginalized, Carla Swafford Works seeks to demonstrate that, while not explicitly, Paul does speak to the least. She does this by speaking to Paul and Poverty, Slavery, Women in the Pauline Mission, Galatian Heirs, the Church, and Paul as the least, and the good news to the least.
I appreciated much of Works’ treatment. Her section detailing the societal structure with regard to poverty was particularly helpful. She builds off Longnecker’s work to provide a clearer understanding of the social stratosphere in the world Paul occupied.
Her section on the gospel, to the least of these, was also helpful. She emphasizes the gospel's cosmic element rightly. The good news of Jesus includes the restoration of all things.
The one detractor from her argument is that, while I appreciated her arguments about women in Paul’s mission, the conversation about women’s ordination detracted from it.
I appreciated much of Works’ treatment. Her section detailing the societal structure with regard to poverty was particularly helpful. She builds off Longnecker’s work to provide a clearer understanding of the social stratosphere in the world Paul occupied.
Her section on the gospel, to the least of these, was also helpful. She emphasizes the gospel's cosmic element rightly. The good news of Jesus includes the restoration of all things.
The one detractor from her argument is that, while I appreciated her arguments about women in Paul’s mission, the conversation about women’s ordination detracted from it.
April 27, 2023
I have a tendency to idolize or villainize characters in the Bible. Admittedly, my readings have flattened people in the Scriptures. I haven’t had enough practice reading Scripture assuming the characters are as complex and multidimensional as we are. They were human after all. Underneath this struggle is what I believe to be laziness on my part. Dignifying Bible characters takes a lot of effort. Using them as pawns is a lot easier.
In her excellent book The Least of These, Carla Works repositions Paul as a layered, nuanced leader who is neither a hero nor a villain. Works does a fantastic job making her propositions accessible. I didn’t want to put her book down.
Works worked hard so that her readers wouldn’t have to. Pun intended. But she also accomplished something even greater. She left her readers eager to replicate her work reclaiming Paul as a theologian for the “least of these.”
She’s exactly what we need in crossover writers who double as well-researched scholars who can write trade books that impact the masses. Works does not rescue Paul from his problematic and tension-filled instructions or avoid addressing his most confusing passages. Instead, Works acts as an ambassador of reconciliation. She bridges the most common complaints against Paul’s seeming misogyny and racist teachings, not with deflection but with heartfelt repentance on behalf of all the ministry leaders who have wielded Paul’s words to cause church hurt and spiritual abuse. She shows with simplicity and grace how to interpret Paul without a hermeneutic of suspicion and how to reconnect Paul’s teachings with Christ’s. For Works, they are one and the same.
The Least of These proves that Paul, in his context, in his imperfect way, refused to ignore marginalized people in and outside the church. He was on a mission to reach all with the gospel, and part of that plan was center-staging the plight of the disadvantaged. I think we all wish he’d bluntly called for the abolition of slavery. He didn’t do enough. And also, he is a revolutionary justice-seeker.
Works’s greatest strength is that she is a great writer. We can have the brightest insights in biblical studies, but if we can’t hold the attention of a reader who can apply our findings so they will benefit the church, what are we even doing?
She offers conclusions and reading lists for further study, making her book a resource rather than just a read. And she makes it look easy to summarize decades of modern scholarship into brief sentences that honor the work of each scholar, even when she disagrees with their position.
Last, Works’s research is embedded in her personal experience as a practitioner and professor. She anticipates the resistance she must overcome to persuade her readers and then gently guides them to the necessary conclusions without blunt force. In short, she knows how to take someone where they need to go because she meets them where they are to begin the journey. She pastors us through the book, knowing the matters she is unpacking have the power to deter someone from their faith altogether.
If Paul is, in fact, misogynistic or racist, how can we reconcile his leadership within Christianity? Works takes care to make her points without defensiveness.
Most of my key takeaways are from Works’s chapter on women and the Pauline mission. I’m intrigued by her suggestions that veils were signs of social status and that women in Ephesus may have been abusing their privileges and choosing entitlement in worship. What a reframing of that whole passage for me. What has traditionally been used to silence women could have been a way for Paul to create a leveling of social structure among the women and men in the congregation. I’ll need to do more investigation on the topic.
And last, how was Paul processing all of his own writing? Did it tear him up inside to see churches struggling against a status-driven culture? Did he rail against it in private conversations? Did he stay up interrogating his own motives for authority and leadership in a fast-growing Jesus movement? Did he wrestle with hypocrisy? Were his teachings all strategic moves to include and serve the least of these? Did he actively seek them out and elevate them to prominence? Did his views on these matters evolve over time?
Paul, like any good leader, was adapting to the ever-changing needs of each congregation, which worked out its faith in a specific context. Carla Works served her readers well to make space for a fresh reading of the passages that present the most obstacles. Maybe in my temptation to minimize Paul, I’ve missed his wholehearted devotion to the least of these.
In her excellent book The Least of These, Carla Works repositions Paul as a layered, nuanced leader who is neither a hero nor a villain. Works does a fantastic job making her propositions accessible. I didn’t want to put her book down.
Works worked hard so that her readers wouldn’t have to. Pun intended. But she also accomplished something even greater. She left her readers eager to replicate her work reclaiming Paul as a theologian for the “least of these.”
She’s exactly what we need in crossover writers who double as well-researched scholars who can write trade books that impact the masses. Works does not rescue Paul from his problematic and tension-filled instructions or avoid addressing his most confusing passages. Instead, Works acts as an ambassador of reconciliation. She bridges the most common complaints against Paul’s seeming misogyny and racist teachings, not with deflection but with heartfelt repentance on behalf of all the ministry leaders who have wielded Paul’s words to cause church hurt and spiritual abuse. She shows with simplicity and grace how to interpret Paul without a hermeneutic of suspicion and how to reconnect Paul’s teachings with Christ’s. For Works, they are one and the same.
The Least of These proves that Paul, in his context, in his imperfect way, refused to ignore marginalized people in and outside the church. He was on a mission to reach all with the gospel, and part of that plan was center-staging the plight of the disadvantaged. I think we all wish he’d bluntly called for the abolition of slavery. He didn’t do enough. And also, he is a revolutionary justice-seeker.
Works’s greatest strength is that she is a great writer. We can have the brightest insights in biblical studies, but if we can’t hold the attention of a reader who can apply our findings so they will benefit the church, what are we even doing?
She offers conclusions and reading lists for further study, making her book a resource rather than just a read. And she makes it look easy to summarize decades of modern scholarship into brief sentences that honor the work of each scholar, even when she disagrees with their position.
Last, Works’s research is embedded in her personal experience as a practitioner and professor. She anticipates the resistance she must overcome to persuade her readers and then gently guides them to the necessary conclusions without blunt force. In short, she knows how to take someone where they need to go because she meets them where they are to begin the journey. She pastors us through the book, knowing the matters she is unpacking have the power to deter someone from their faith altogether.
If Paul is, in fact, misogynistic or racist, how can we reconcile his leadership within Christianity? Works takes care to make her points without defensiveness.
Most of my key takeaways are from Works’s chapter on women and the Pauline mission. I’m intrigued by her suggestions that veils were signs of social status and that women in Ephesus may have been abusing their privileges and choosing entitlement in worship. What a reframing of that whole passage for me. What has traditionally been used to silence women could have been a way for Paul to create a leveling of social structure among the women and men in the congregation. I’ll need to do more investigation on the topic.
And last, how was Paul processing all of his own writing? Did it tear him up inside to see churches struggling against a status-driven culture? Did he rail against it in private conversations? Did he stay up interrogating his own motives for authority and leadership in a fast-growing Jesus movement? Did he wrestle with hypocrisy? Were his teachings all strategic moves to include and serve the least of these? Did he actively seek them out and elevate them to prominence? Did his views on these matters evolve over time?
Paul, like any good leader, was adapting to the ever-changing needs of each congregation, which worked out its faith in a specific context. Carla Works served her readers well to make space for a fresh reading of the passages that present the most obstacles. Maybe in my temptation to minimize Paul, I’ve missed his wholehearted devotion to the least of these.
March 31, 2023
This was one of those books that crushed my expectations for it. Carla Works helps the reader to see that not only is Paul for the least of these, but much of his writing serves to intentionally empower the disinvested. She places Paul in his context with academic precision, helping the reader to understand exactly how unsettling Paul's message and metaphors might have been for those who pledge allegiance to the status quo. She also engages with the currents of modern scholarship with impressive clarity, introducing the reader to new ways of understanding Paul in every chapter.
At the end of her chapter on slavery in which she argues that Paul's usage of familial language is a "powerful means of resistance" she concludes:
"Though God's kingdom will not come to fruition until Christ comes again, God's reign has already begun. God is disrupting social orders that degrade most and elevate a few. God sees all as beloved children. If the church had even tried to live into this calling to bear witness to this other world, this reign of God where all are free and all can experience life abundant, The French Revolution might not have been necessary. Oh how very different history might be if the believers followed Paul's advice to treat those beside them as beloved siblings."
At the end of her chapter on slavery in which she argues that Paul's usage of familial language is a "powerful means of resistance" she concludes:
"Though God's kingdom will not come to fruition until Christ comes again, God's reign has already begun. God is disrupting social orders that degrade most and elevate a few. God sees all as beloved children. If the church had even tried to live into this calling to bear witness to this other world, this reign of God where all are free and all can experience life abundant, The French Revolution might not have been necessary. Oh how very different history might be if the believers followed Paul's advice to treat those beside them as beloved siblings."
March 29, 2022
First of all- reading a theological book written by a woman?? A luxury I do not usually get:,) I really appreciated the perspectives shown in this book. I totally agree with some of the students mentioned in their thoughts of “how do I support this man when he is said to have written some terrible, homophobic, sexist, etc. things??” It was so insightful to get these texts in perspective but also hear from Works that we expect these texts to live up to our 21st century idea of acceptable and even moral but we forget to acknowledge that even if Paul didn’t outright go against the structures in place, he turned it around and gave a different perspective that was unexpected at the time. This was because the act of Christ on the cross did the same, it shook up the norm. The one thing I missed was the discussion on homosexuality. It was mentioned very slightly at the beginning of the book and never readdressed. Other thank that, I appreciated this book and it was a decent class read.
March 24, 2020
A good look at how Paul, not just a stodgy-apostle-theologian, championed the little and least. Works explores the make up of the early Pauline communities (e.g. poor, slaves, women), and the metaphors of little and least-ness Paul uses, to show that in practice, he is actually closer to Jesus in his care for the marginalized than is popularly assumed.
March 14, 2023
Works does a great job of showing Paul's concern for the people who would've been the "least" of his communities. This is a fantastic book for those who have trouble reconciling the words of Jesus and the words of Paul.
August 26, 2021
Really enjoyed this book. Loved how the author divided the material, built a case, and showed other perspectives.
April 12, 2025
Thought provoking read on Paul and his writings. The Chapter on Women is especially well done.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews