Theologians and pastors alike have come to expect that, as each calendar year turns, Dr. Tom (N.T. Wright) will publish some new work. Such has happened just this week with the release of his most recent book now available, The Paul Debate: Critical Questions for Understanding the Apostle.

It’s not as if Wright hasn’t already written plenty on the topic – he has, perhaps, published more on Pauline studies than any other over the past three decades. Some of his greatest works include What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?, Paul: In Fresh Perspectives, and Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision. Even more, his massive 1700-page tome, Paul and the Faithfulness of God came out only two years ago. It was volume 4 of his Christian Origins and the Question of God. He has literally racked up thousand and thousands of published pages on the theme of Paul’s theology as found in the New Testament.

Most will know by now, but Wright steps to the plate as a champion for what has been titled the “new perspective on Paul” (NPP), which is in contradistinction to a normal evangelical reading of Paul’s letters, especially his letters to the churches in Galatia and Rome. Following in the vein of folk like E.P. Sanders and James Dunn, Wright argues that the NPP paradigm offers a better grounding in the first-century setting of Paul. The normal Protestant and evangelical readings of Scripture, NPP advocates charge, is to readily run through the lens of a perspective that came along later during the 16th century Reformation.

As expected, with the release of Paul and the Faithfulness of God, much scrutinization of the magnum opus followed, both criticism and praise. In an effort to briefly respond to the reviews (the book’s content weighs in at a mere 107 pages), and probably more the critical responses, Wright has offered this new Baylor Press publication, The Paul Debate. In all, the book serves as a succinct summary of his own insights into the new perspective on Paul.

In particular, the book is broken into five chapters of similar length that address particular criticisms. As he outlines in the Preface:

To read even this summary of the book’s themes easily reminds us that the present work is more suitable to seminarians than a popular audience. To break it down, consider these points being addressed in each chapter.

Chapter 1 – Was Paul simply a Jew who knew Jesus as Messiah or did he carry a more Hellenistic, Greek perspective with only very little Jewish thought remaining? Or, was Paul deeply rooted in his Jewish thinking, but was one who had had his paradigm renewed in the new framework of Jesus as God’s Messiah? Wright is convinced Paul was as Jewish as they come, yet, thinking like the Messiah meant “bringing a whole world of Jewish thinking into a new focus, a new frame, because the Messiah himself, so Paul believed, had brought the whole life of God’s ancient people into a new focus, a new frame.” (p11)

Chapter 2 – This chapter flows on from the first in that Wright gets into the nitty gritty of the Jewish framework on which Paul built his renewed theology. Whereas concepts such as the hypostatic union and Trinity were defined a few centuries later in church history, all in an effort to support the view of Jesus’ divinity, Paul had his own Jewish way of identifying Jesus, the Messiah, with the God of Israel. The divine identity lined up quite well with the way the Hebrew Scriptures particularly spoke about Yahweh and his activity.

The Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies will convene March 23-25 at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. In celebration of the centennial of the Azusa Revival, the theme for the 2006 meeting is “Memories of the Azusa Revival: Interrogations and Interpretations.”

The Arol Burns Mall on the Fuller Pasadena campus. Source: http://www.fuller.edu/Campuses/Pasadena/Pasadena_Campus_Photo_Gallery

The centenary of the Revival creates an occasion to interrogate and (re-)interpret the memories of the Azusa Revival and its role in the construction of Pentecostalism(s) within North America and globally. The theme of this conference aims to deepen the discourse about the memories of the Azusa Revival and advance discussion of the role of the Revival in the construction of Pentecostalism as a U.S. and global religious movement.

The plenary speakers bring a wide range of perspectives. Cecil M. Robeck (Professor of Ecumenics, Fuller Theological Seminary) is a leading expert on the history of the Azusa Street Revival. Ogbu Kalu (Henry Luce Professor of World Christianity, McCormick Theological Seminary) is a major historian of African Pentecostalism. A panel will probe the task of reinterpreting William J. Seymour and his legacy. Lita Owens, Tony Award nominated playwright, will present a program of drama and song about the Azusa Street Revival and its era; the original short play, “The Right Choice,” is about a private conversation between William J. Seymour and Jennie Moore Seymour, and will be performed at the banquet.

In addition to the plenary sessions, a variety of papers and symposia will be available addressing themes relevant to studies in Pentecostalism. Worship, a reception, morning prayer, working-lunch meetings of committees, the Society’s business meeting, and the Saturday-evening banquet, are an integral part of the program as well. Time apart from the sessions encourages attendees to become acquainted with one another and to share their scholarly interests and current work. Attendees also enjoy discounted prices on a variety of books and other products exhibited by vendors and ministries who underwrite various Meeting activities.

You can learn more about the meeting, hotel accommodations, transportation, etc., at the SPS website www.sps-usa.org.