That the Acts of the Apostles includes three slightly different accounts of Paul's Damascus road encounter with Jesus has long presented a challenge to interpreters. In this book Blake Shipp seeks to understand the function of the three accounts in Acts 9, 22, and 26 within the larger narrative sweep of Acts by means of a rhetorical analysis. Critical of what he calls the chaotic state of current rhetorical criticism, Shipp also proposes guidelines for the application of rhetorical analysis of the New Testament, something he terms a "literary-rhetorical" method. The bulk of Shipp's analysis of Acts consists of the application of his proposed method, which is noted briefly at the end of the first chapter but explained and justified in greater detail in an appendix to the book.