N.T. Wright’s Newest Release: The Paul Debate
Chapter 3 – Here Wright deals with a category that has come to describe the pictorial and prophetic genre within Scripture: apocalyptic. But, in doing so, he considers this category in connection with Israel’s long-standing covenant story. Wright sees the apocalyptic Scriptures addressing the socio-political situation of the Jewish people, which in Paul’s day would have entailed the Roman empire. However, as he reminds us, “The ‘political’ reference does not cancel out the reference to suprahuman powers,” but that “behind these human agents there stood dark power bent on destruction, especially for the little embattled people of God” (p50). Furthermore, when reading the apocalyptic texts, we cannot imagine Jews were asking Protestant questions about who’s going to “get saved”. Rather, they asked, “How, in the present crisis, will the one God keep his promises and bring his justice and mercy to Israel and the world” (p50)?
Chapter 4 – This chapter moves to address what might cause most problems for traditional Protestant-evangelical theology. It covers the topic of justification, as well as the term “righteousness of God.” N.T. Wright is convinced, from the first century perspective, justification does not deal with the idea of saved sinners who are justified by faith rather than works of the law. Instead, we’re looking at a story about God’s covenant faithfulness that has continued to Abraham and his family, ultimately in Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. And this faithfulness is played out in gathering both Jews and Gentiles into the Abraham family through that “sole defining characteristic … pistis, ‘faith’ or ‘faithfulness'” (p87). The people of the Abraham family are now declared in the right and, so, they are justified (dikaiosynē), or are “within the covenant” (p89).
Chapter 5 – The final section of the book considers the practical reality of Paul’s missional perspective and method. Was he intent on saving souls from an evil world and God’s wrath or was he more intent on transformation of the setting in which he lived? As would be expected, Wright champions that latter view above and beyond the former.
The book is not going to hit the best-selling list, nor does it rehearse much of anything new in regards to Wright’s new Pauline perspective. However, as mentioned earlier, it does come to the table as his briefest account on the topic at hand. Even more, it stands as another effort in his continued contributions to the databank of Pauline scholarship.
Publisher’s page: http://www.baylorpress.com/Book/464/The_Paul_Debate.html
Further reading:
Scot McKnight posted a 7-part series a few years back where he discussed the book, Justification: Five Views (Spectrum Multiview Books). This gives an introduction to five specific views on the topic of justification, including James Dunn’s support of the new perspective on Paul. Here are the articles: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7.
Ben Witherington has posted a 93-part series assessing N.T. Wright’s tome, Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Here is part 1 to start off that series.
Elsewhere on PneumaReview.com:
Will the Real Paul Please Stand Up? A review essay by pastor, scholar Tony Richie about the new perspective on Paul.
Amos Yong reviews: Don Garlington, In Defense of the New Perspective on Paul
Tony Richie on Kingdom of Heaven and Justification Must Re-centralizing Jesus Mean Displacing the Spirit? A Review Essay of Scot McKnight’s “Jesus vs. Paul.”
Kevin Williams on Kingdom of Heaven and Justification Kingdom of Heaven, Justification: Is There a Conflict? Something Missing? In this review essay, Kevin Williams responds to Scot McKnight’s article “Jesus vs. Paul.”
Scot McKnight on Kingdom of Heaven and Justification Scot McKnight responds to the review essays by Kevin Williams and Tony Richie that appeared in the Summer 2011 issue of The Pneuma Review regarding his article, “Jesus vs. Paul.”
Category: Biblical Studies, Fall 2015
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