The study of the evolution of church structure and order has been subject to considerable research and debate, often with theological presuppositions determining the direction taken. In this highly original work Bengt Holmberg separates historical groundwork from theological analysis by reviewing the issues from a sociological point of view. What emerges is an unusually lucid study of the network of power relationships which can be traced in the decades of St. Paul's ministry. The principle actors and situations in the Pauline Epistles suggest what the organizational and leadership realities of the times were like and how Paul his co-workers and his churches related to one another.