Richard B. Hays, Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina, since 1991, is an ordained United Methodist minister. He received his B.A. and M.Div. Degrees from Yale University and his Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta, where he taught in the Chandler School of Theology. He also taught at Yale Divinity School for ten years. Hays is noted for his work in the field of Pauline theology and New Testament ethics. His books include: The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation (Harper SanFrancisco, 1996), Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (Yale University Press, 1989) and First Corinthians (Interpretation commentary series; John Knox Press, 1997).

In these lectures, as in his writings, Hays' passion for getting the story right and his conviction that Christians today are part of that story, become apparent. Our "getting it right" has to do not only with intellectual interests and rigour, but with the truthful practices of today's Christians.