N. T. Wright

Review: Paul the Storyteller

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Paul the Storyteller: A Narratological Approach, Christoph Heilig. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802878953) 2024.

Summary: A narratological approach showing that Paul combines implicit and explicit narratives, making him a gifted storyteller.

In my biblical training, we learned to distinguish genres, with the gospels generally consisting of narrative, whereas the letters of Paul were examples of discourse. Of course, neither of this is strictly true. Furthermore, two key New Testament scholars, Richard B. Hays and N. T. Wright pioneered “narrative approaches” to Paul. However, they dismissed the idea of explicit narratives in Paul, observing “narrative substructures (Hayes) or “implicit worldview narratives” (Wright).

Christoph Heilig, while appreciating the pioneering work of these scholars, believes they are wrong in dismissing explicit narratives. He wrote a 600 page dissertation (in German) in 2018. This work follows the organization of the dissertation but is about half the length and in English. He takes the narrative approach a step further, engaging in narratological analysis at a linguistic, grammatological level. While he confirms the use of implicit narrative, he also demonstrates that Paul incorporates a number of explicit narratives.

He begins with a definition of narrative by Kindt and Köppe: “A text is a narrative if and only if it deals with at least two events that are ordered temporally and connected in at least one further meaningful way.” He shows different ways this may be done and discusses the interpretation of story, using biblical examples. Then in chapter two, he turns to the grammar of narration and all the ways events may be linguistically connected. This is not for the faint of heart, running to nearly 100 pages. Grammar nerds will love it, especially Greek grammar nerds.

Chapter three turns to narratives within the wider context of Paul’s works. Explicit narrative connects to a broader frame narrative of Paul’s letters, Chapter four then turns to implicit “protonarratives” in Paul, offering numerous examples of these. Then, in chapter five, he returns to Hays and Wright, confirming aspects of their proposals, and arguing for much closer attention to the way Paul implicitly and explicitly narrates. Particularly, he critiques Wright’s worldview narrative approach as focused more on overarching plot rather than building up from careful analysis of both explicit narrative and implicit protonarratives.

As you may deduce, this is a rigorously technical account, putting forth an argument for a narratological approach to Paul. In addition to contributing to a larger scholarly conversation, Heilig offers resources to enrich the exegesis of Paul’s writing, foundational work, first for commentators, and then for preachers. While it is not easy work, good exegetical work never is. I hope Heilig will build upon and model this work in a commentary (or two!) on one of the Pauline letters.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Challenge of Acts

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The Challenge of Acts, N.T, Wright. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310167990) 2024.

Summary: An overview of the book of Acts in four chapter sections, developing the major themes of the book.

The book of Acts is a long book. A commentary on such a book is no mean undertaking as Craig Keener’s four-volume work on Acts shows. Now N.T. Wright has shown himself capable of massive projects but takes a different approach in this study of Acts. Instead of verse-by-verse commentary, he offers an overview of the narrative that develops what he sees as major themes of the book. The plan of the book is to take the book in four chapter blocks, apart from a chapter on the opening of Acts, and a chapter devoted to Paul’s Mars Hill address.

The sections develop themes that will run through Acts. Beginning with chapter 1 on Acts 1, we see the command to take the gospel of the kingdom from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth, forming the plan of Acts. And then the resurrected King and Lord ascends into heaven, to rule at God’s right hand, present in his full authority as the church advances and faces adversity in its witness. Chapters 2-4 build on this news that in the risen Lord, God has raised up a new temple, a message the authorities immediately oppose. The Spirit empowered apostles persist in witness, determining to obey God when his command overrides that of human authorities. In chapters 5-8, believers are imprisoned, experiencing both deliverance and martyrdom. And the gospel spreads to Samaria (and Ethiopia).

Then chapters 9-12 serve as a bridge to the rest of Acts. On the Damascus road Saul encounters Jesus and finds his zeal redirected. Subsequently, with the church at peace, Peter accepts an invitation from a Roman centurion. And lo and behold, the Spirit of God falls upon the household, and the Jews conclude that god has granted the Gentiles ‘repentance that leads to life.’ Finally, after other persecution refugees testify in Antioch, with many Gentiles believing, brother Barnabas goes, affirms the grace of God and fetches Saul to help him.

The stage set, Antioch sends Barnabas and Saul out. And quickly, two things happen. People believe. And opposition arises. It becomes a pattern throughout Paul’s ministry. However, we also see authorities repeatedly acquit Paul. In Philippi, they receive a public apology for the beating off Paul, the Roman citizen. Then in Corinth the proconsul dismisses charges as a dispute about words, names, and laws, giving Paul legal cover for ministry. In Athens, the religious council at the Areopagus laugh at his ideas but do not charge him. And in Ephesus, the town clerk dismisses a rioting crowd. This will be important for what follows.

Chapters 21-24 cover Paul’s troubles in Jerusalem. Wright’s account struck me with the odd response to the offering and reports of the kingdom’s advance among Gentiles. Instead of jubilation, Paul is asked to pay for a cleansing rite to verify he is a true blue Jew. Then despite his diligence, a mob falsely accuses him. His defense is a proclamation of the risen Jesus. Then, in 25-28, we see his speech in Caesarea before Agrippa, once again speaking of the resurrection, that Festus and Agrippa can find nothing with which to charge him. But off to Caesar he will go, and after shipwreck will proclaim Jesus as Lord in Rome.

Two major themes come through. One is the proclamation of Christ as risen Messiah and King, the new temple and fulfillment of of the broadest hopes of Israel, that the nations would come to Yahweh. The other is the vindication of those who witness to the risen Christ, from Gamaliel in the Sanhedrin to Festus and Agrippa. Wright proposes that Acts may even have been a kind of “legal brief” for Paul’s defense before Caesar. In one respect, at least, the challenge of Acts is whether this movement is overturning the established order. Wright makes the case in his treatment of the defense on the Areopagus, that it was rather a setting of things to rights.

Wright offers a number of interesting insights. Sometimes, I wished for more evidence for some of his assertions. That is also the challenge of an overview of Acts. But Wright offers a resource for both personal study and for pastors and others who will teach this. He makes it clear that those engaged in gospel witness will face opposition from both human and spiritual powers. But in life and death, the risen Christ is with his people.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Into the Heart of Romans

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Cover image of "Into the Heart of Romans" by N.T. Wright

Into the Heart of Romans, N.T. Wright. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310157748), 2023.

Summary: A close reading of Romans 8, focusing on the purpose, presence, and profound love in Christ for all who believe meant to assure them of not only their ultimate destiny but of God’s favor even as they share in the sufferings of Christ amid a groaning creation.

N.T. Wright has been studying the book of Romans for fifty years, publishing both scholarly and popular commentaries on Paul’s masterpiece, as well as drawing extensively on Romans in his Pauline scholarship. This book reflects both the culmination of this scholarship as well as changes in his thought through discussions with his students.

The focus of the book is on the majestic culmination in Romans 8 to Paul’s arguments in Romans 1-7. Romans 8 is indeed the heart of Romans as central in the text of the letter and key as a transition from the argument of the first seven chapters to the discussions on the calling of Israel in 9-11 and the applicatory material of chapters 12-16. But what is Paul’s conclusion and how did Wright’s thinking about it change.

We have traditionally read this chapter is one of assurance of our salvation in Christ, as those not under condemnation, as those for whom God works good in all things, and for whom nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ. Wright would not disagree with these things, but has come to see something equally rich–the presence, power, and profound approval of God in Christ for us in the present moment. For many of Paul’s readers, even as is the case for many in the present day, the present is a time of suffering. Paul’s message is that this, in fact is their vocation, and it is one of sharing in the sufferings of Christ, that the spirit (Wright uses the lower case throughout) groans, intercedes, and empowers, and that Christians can be assured of God’s approval (and not condemnation) and God’s protection in life and death.

After introductory material setting Romans 8 in its context, Wright breaks the book into eight sections. For each section, Wright asks what the opening and closing reveals about the theme. He then looks at Paul’s connecting words to unpack the logic of his argument. He then looks at the contexts in Paul’s wider world, both Jewish and Greco-Roman, that provides resonances for what Paul is saying. A few insights I appreciated out of the wealth of material here:

  • Romans 8:1-4. There is no condemnation because God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus, fulfilling what Torah could only anticipate.
  • Romans 8:5-11. The spirit of the risen Christ enables God’s people in the present time to please God in our bodies.
  • Romans 8:12-17. Wright challenges the moralizing anthropology of our Platonic notions of heaven with the idea of our vocation in the new creation, already begun in which we are God’s spirit-empowered agents. That vocation is as fellow heirs with Christ, crying “Abba” even as we share in suffering, with the hope of resurrection.
  • Romans 8:17-21. “The primary meanings of ‘glory’ in this passage are, simultaneously, the glorious presence of God himself dwelling within us by the spirit, and the wise, healing, reconciling rule of God’s people over the whole creation. These two — God’s presence and human rule — are made for each other. They fit together” (p. 110).
  • Romans 8:22-27. We enter, perhaps most deeply into our vocation, as we enter into the world’s suffering, the groaning creation, enabled by God’s spirit to pray with lament and longing.
  • Romans 8:28-30. Wright challenges the traditional “all things work for good” translating it rather “God works all things together for good with those who love him,” particularly in calling, justifying, and glorifying us.
  • Romans 8:31-34. An interesting side note in this chapter is Wright’s questioning of the Feast of Christ the King, contending that it takes away from the idea of the Ascension as Christ’s installation as King.
  • Romans 8:34-39. The theme of our vocation makes sense of all the “bad” things of vv. 35-36 with the assurance that none of these will separate us from the love of God in Christ.

Wright’s situating of the assurance of God’s love, approval, and protection within the vocation of Christians as sharing in Christ’s sufferings in a groaning creation profoundly deepens our reading of this powerful chapter. This is not “happy-clappy” Christianity insensitive to the world’s struggles. It is not prosperous and privileged Christianity by the standards of the world. This is a profound word for Christians who have entered into the groanings of our world and for those whose faithfulness has led to suffering, that this is not their fault, that God is with them, and even praying with them in their laments. This is a profound word that there is nothing that the world or the powers can throw in their face or their lives to part them from God. Even as God said to Israel, “I will be your God” so God says to the larger human family in Christ.

Wright is not an easy read. It was a gift to read this with a local book group, particularly one with a member deeply familiar with Wright’s work (not me) who supplemented our discussions with background material from Wright. Thanks, Dan, and all my friends, who labored to dig out the wealth of insight in this book!

Review: The Apostle and the Empire

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The Apostle and the Empire, Christoph Heilig (foreword by John M. G. Barclay). Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2022.

Summary: Focusing on 2 Corinthians 2:14, Heilig argues for an alternative to either hidden or unexpressed criticism of the empire in Paul’s writings, proposing that we might also consider texts that have been overlooked.

Until N. T. Wright, most commentators on the Pauline works considered Paul to be silent on or even supportive of the Roman empire. Wright changed that with an article in 2000, “Paul’s Gospel and Caesar’s Empire,” proposing that subtexts could be found in Paul’s writing of an anti-imperial nature, referred to as hidden subtexts. John M. G. Barclay responded with a critique outlining five necessary conditions that would need to be met to accept Wright’s hypothesis that Wright answered in a chapter of Paul and the Faithfulness of God in 2013. A more recent paper by Laura Robinson questions the “hidden subtext” idea proposing that they are not hidden but just are not there, and that the concerns evoked by Wright about surveillance by the empire were unwarranted.

In this work, Heilig seeks to move the discussion to a new place. In addition to challenging Robinson’s assessment of the dangers Christians faced, invoking for example, the Pliny-Trajan correspondence, and the troubles Paul actually found himself in, he proposes the idea that Paul’s criticism is not so much hidden as perhaps, at least in some passages, overlooked. After mentioning passages like 1 Corinthians 2:6 and 1 Thessalonians 3:3, he focuses much of this monograph on 2 Corinthians 2:14:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.

2 Corinthians 2:14, NIV.

A significant part of Heilig’s argument, overlooked in most commentaries, is the contemporary context of the victory procession of Claudius in 44 AD, celebrating his victory over Britannia. The Corinthians actually had an emperor cult that celebrated this victory. References to a triumphal procession would readily evoke this event in the minds of the Corinthians, not simply a general military practice. He explores the challenge to empire implicit in the reference God leading this procession, spreading the knowledge of the victory of Christ. Heilig argues that this, at very least expresses a sense of “unease” with the empire. He also suggests that this may be found even in the “clearest” of the passages on the empire, Romans 13:1-7, although I am surprised the author does not explore the standards for the just exercise of power implied in these passages, that is an implicit judgment against the much more arbitrary exercise of “the sword” in actuality.

In the last chapter before the conclusion, he decries the woeful state of access to the most current scholarship on context for biblical commentators, illustrated by the “overlooked” material on Claudius. I felt that, while this may be valid, I would have been more greatly helped by a discussion of further research along the lines of this work, and at least a preliminary overview of other passages where he thought criticism may have been overlooked rather than hidden.

That said, I do think this proposal offers new ground for work on Paul’s unease with empire and the realities faced by early Christians navigating Roman society, one that recognizes both Paul’s courage and discretion.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Advent for Everyone: Matthew

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Advent for Everyone

Advent for Everyone: Matthew, N. T. Wright. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019.

Summary: An Advent devotional with four weeks of daily readings and commentary by a noted New Testament scholar and pastor.

N. T. Wright has published a whole series of “…for Everyone” books including ones for each of the three years in the lectionary cycle. This focuses around the Advent readings for Year A in the Gospel of Matthew. The devotional includes daily readings for the four weeks of Advent, with translations of Matthew by the author, brief commentary, and a question or two for reflection.

I found this a rich set of devotional readings. At the core of each devotional is real commentary. That is, Wright concisely sets forward the meaning and relevance of the day’s text, rather than simply sharing an “inspiring thought that may or may not have any connection to the reading.

In this review, I will share one example, a brief summary from one of each week’s readings, that may give you a flavor for the whole:

Week 1: A Time to Watch: 

First Sunday of Advent: The unexpected visit: Matthew 24:36-44

Wright reminds us from a personal experience of what it means to have unexpected visitors. He then deals with this apocalyptic text from Matthew and its call for watchfulness for the Lord’s coming. He speaks of the dire prophecy, fulfilled at least initially, with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. He observes that the one taken, one left refers to those taken by soldiers to their deaths and those left untouched. Interestingly, the church fled Jerusalem before its fall, recognizing what was coming. Wright urges us to similar watchfulness in our own “turbulent and dangerous times.” And so we are invited into the beginning of this season of watching for the Lord’s Advent.

Week 2: A Time to Repent:

Thursday: The Parable of the Clean and Unclean: Matthew 15:10-20

Beginning with one of my favorite stories of Pooh and the Heffalump, he talks about Pooh’s concern that the jar of honey set to lure the Heffalump was real honey all the way down. From this he moves to the issue of purity and the challenge of Jesus to religious leaders who are pure on the outside and corrupt inwardly. The invitation is one to search our own hearts. For what need we repent and ask the coming Lord to cleanse in our lives? Are we pure all the way down?

Week 3: A Time to Heal:

Wednesday: The Raising of the Little Girl: Matthew 9:18-26

Every culture has hygiene practices and for good reasons. These enable us to avoid disease. For the Jews, you avoided a woman having her period or any other bleeding, and you did not touch dead bodies. If so, you went through ritual cleansing. In this passage, Jesus both permits a bleeding woman to touch him and takes the hand of a dead girl. Instead of Jesus being rendered unclean, the woman is healed, the dead girl comes to life. Here is one more powerful than whatever may pollute our lives, in body or mind. What might he touch and heal in us?

Week 4: A Time to Love:

Monday: Loving Your Enemies: Matthew 5:38-48.

Wright observes that Israel is a chosen people, yet overrun with enemies. He shows how Jesus offers “a new sort of justice, a creative, healing restorative justice.” It means a refusal to answer violence with violence. It means to go beyond the judgment of a shirt to giving one’s cloak, shaming the adversary with one’s virtual nakedness. It means to go beyond the mile Romans could impress one to carry a load, going a second mile, gratis. Wright asks with regard to our own enemies, “How does his teaching on reflecting the generous God and defusing violence speak to you?”

Wright’s devotionals focus on the wonder of this Lord who has come and is coming, and how we might watch for and prepare for that coming. His incisive commentary and questions are designed not just to engender warm feelings of “comfort and joy” but rather to call us into the deeper work of watching, repenting, longing for healing, and embracing the generous love of God.

This review may come late for this season. I’d encourage you to buy this volume, and the companions for Year B (Advent for Everyone: A Journey with the Apostles) and Year C (Advent for Everyone: Luke). Then you will have them for the full lectionary cycle. Yesterday, we lit the fourth Advent candle in our church, looking forward to the lighting of the Christ candle, the one who is the light of the world. These readings helped intensify my joy in what his first coming means and my longing for his return. The Lord grant you the same!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review e-galley of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: Paul

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Paul

Paul: A Biography, N. T. Wright. New York: Harper One, 2018.

Summary: Wright translates his scholarship that gives a “new account” of Paul’s life into a popular biography, tracing the life and thought of the apostle through the letters he wrote and narrative of his journeys.

Over the last thirty years, perhaps no one has written more on the life and thought of the Apostle Paul than N. T. Wright, most notably his two volume Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Wright is associated with what is called “the New Perspective” on Paul. What he has done in this volume is distill his scholarship into a highly readable account of the life and thought of this apostle. Reading this, you will see some of the ways Wright casts the life of Paul in new perspective.

We see this in his portrayal of Paul’s Damascus road experience. He imagines Paul possibly reflecting on the vision of Ezekiel, perhaps praying the Shema, when suddenly he gazes upward…into the face of Jesus, whose followers he has been persecuting. Wright challenges us to see that this was not a conversion to a new religion, but the shattering and transforming realization that Jesus was the fulfillment of the scriptures Paul had studied so long–that he “had been absolutely right in his devotion to Israel and the Torah, but absolutely wrong in his view of Israel’s vocation and identity and even in the meaning of the Torah.”

He then traces the travels of Paul from the formative years in the wilderness and Tarsus where he rethought everything in the light of Christ, and then his successive journeys taking the message of Christ into Asia Minor, then later into Europe in Philippi, Athens, and Corinth. In the Galatian controversy with Peter and his subsequent letter, we catch the first glimpse of Paul’s transformed vision, where he sees both Jew and Gentile incorporated and included into a new people enjoying the blessing of Abraham’s faith. It is this that explains his methodology of teaching in synagogues, and then to Gentiles who will hear him and seeking to form new communities made up of those who give allegiance to Christ, and share table fellowship.

The biography offers some of Wright’s distinctive judgments on matters scholars have debated, southern versus northern theories of Galatians (he opts for south), and the origin of the prison letters, neither from Caesarea or Rome, but during an imprisonment in the latter part of his time in Ephesus. Wright explores this as a nadir of Paul’s ministry, both in the experience of prison, but also in the receipt of disturbing news from Corinth from those questioning his reputation. He proposes that this accounts for the somewhat disjointed style of 2 Corinthians, written after his release. He also believes that after writing this, he penned his magnum opus to the Romans, spelling out to a church where tensions existed separating Jew and Gentile, the purpose of God to include Gentiles with Jews as heirs of the promise of the covenant to make one new people.

Throughout, Wright explores the character of this apostle, who he describes as “bossy” on the voyage to Rome, and often troublesome in jumping into the fray. Paul did not let sleeping dogs lie. But Wright also argues, that like many “angular” entrepreneurs, it was these very qualities that, on a human level accounted for the success of this apostle in establishing these new communities across the Roman empire.

The work was a delight to read on many levels, as a reflection on the career of Paul and as an exploration of the relationship of Jesus and the hope of Israel revealed in Torah and the prophets. I savored his insights into each of Paul’s letters, and the vision of the church Paul articulated, that would sustain a movement long after his martyrdom, even as it continues to do so to this day.

Paul has often been maligned as a misogynist, as a heretic from his Jewish origins, and more. For others, we read him through Reformation glasses. Wright may or may not convince you otherwise, but this marvelous distillation of his scholarship will make you both think about, and hopefully rejoice in, what this apostle accomplished. And perhaps it will help you read his letters with new eyes.

Review: God and the Faithfulness of Paul

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god and faithfulness of paul

God and the Faithfulness of Paul, Christoph Heilig, J. Thomas Hewitt, and Michael F. Bird, eds. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017.

Summary: A collection of papers assessing N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God by scholars from a number of fields of theological study, with a concluding response from N. T. Wright.

In 2013, N. T. Wright published his 1700 page masterwork on Pauline theology, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (hereafter PFG). Since this time, the work has spawned numerous reviews, other scholarly works, and an extended response from N. T. Wright, Paul and His Recent Interpreters, (reviewed here). What distinguishes this work, which comes to half the length of Wright’s, is that it represents assessments of scholars who are specialists in a number of the fields upon which Wright draws in his work, from Jewish studies, to exegesis, to biblical and systematic theology. Furthermore, noting that gap between English and German scholarship on Paul, this work brings together scholars from both.

The work is broken into five parts with a concluding epilogue in which Wright responds (in a mere 57 pages!) to the contributors. An online version of the Table of Contents may be found here. I will not try to discuss all thirty essays as well as Wright’s response but rather what were for me some of the most salient essays, realizing this does not do justice to the high quality of others.

Part One consists of a single chapter by Benjamin Schliesser that situates PFG in the scholarly landscape, noting it as a negative reaction to the work of Rudolf Bultmann, and setting it alongside the works of Dunn, Schreiner, Wolter, and Schnelle. Part Two consider a number of methodological issues from hermeneutics to history in six chapters. I found the discussion of Wright’s “critical realism” and its particular association with Ian Barbour of interest, as well as the critique in a couple of the essays of Wright’s exclusive focus on Pauline material on Paul to the exclusion of Lukan material.

Part Three focuses on contextual issues ranging from the Jewish context which plays such an important part in Wright’s work, particularly in a somewhat biting essay by James Charlesworth to a more irenic discussion of Wright’s lack of engagement with middle Platonism by Gregory Sterling. Wright conceded this latter critique in his response. Two other essays concern the cultic context and a significant essay by Seyoon Kim on Paul and the Roman empire.

Part Four is the longest section of the book, comprising twelve essays, on exegetical issues. I thought Gregory Tatum got Wright wrong in his chapter on law and covenant, attributing a forensic perspective to Wright more characteristic of his opponents. James D. G. Dunn takes Wright to task for how little he addresses the New Perspective.  Peter Stuhlmacher’s chapter on Wright’s understanding of justification and redemption is particularly outstanding for its discussion and critique of the ideas of exile and the role of Abraham in PFG.  There is also an essay on apocalyptic by Jorg Frey, highly critical of Wright’s account of apocalyptic in Paul, the one essay to which Wright responds at length in the epilogue.

Part Five concerns implications. Sven Ensminger’s work on Barth and Wright seemed to be mostly about his hero, Barth, with little engagement with Wright or Paul. More positively, Frank Macchia’s essay (and several others in this volume including Levison’s in Part Four) drew attention to Paul’s Pneumatology in Wright. Edith Humphrey extends Wright’s ideas about sacramentality and the sacraments. The final essay by Schnabel concerns both mission and the discussion of whether Paul’s experience on the Damascus road was one of conversion or call.

The concluding epilogue (Part Six) is devoted to Wright’s responses to the various essays in twelve sections. For the most part, the responses are gracious, acknowledging where the writer has challenged his thought helpfully, and sometimes, where the writer has misunderstood him, notably Frey, who gets ten pages of response. Often Wright’s response is to cite the length of his work and to go into matters further as some would have him would have resulted in a much longer, and perhaps more tedious work.

There are several strengths to this work, particularly the assessments from specialists of a number of claims Wright makes in his broad sweeping work. Also, one who has been around academics in scholarly conference will recognize the cut and thrust of serious scholarly work, where the function of critique is to refine and sharpen thinking.

The work demands close reading and one benefits greatly by having a copy of PFG at hand and having read it. I have to confess that I have only read summaries and reviews and so I honestly felt I was, for the most part, listening to one side of a nuanced conversation. What this collection underscored for me was what a singular work PFG is to evoke so much rigorous discussion from so many perspectives. Now to figure out when I can give a few months of careful attention to this work!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through Edelweiss. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: Paul and His Recent Interpreters

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Paul and His Recent InterpretersPaul and His Recent Interpreters, N. T. Wright. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015.

Summary: N.T. Wright surveys the scholarship in Pauline studies over the past fifty years engaging scholars developing the “new perspective”, “apocalyptic”, and “social history” approaches to Paul.

It is hard to believe but N.T. Wright has not been able to say all there is to say about Pauline scholarship in his two volume (1700 pages) Paul and The Faithfulness of God. Paul and His Recent Interpreters is a companion to that work in which Wright develops his own understanding of Paul’s life and thought. Here he engages other scholars who have been working in this field, particularly in the last fifty years, carefully summarizing their work and offering a critique in light of his own scholarship.

After a preface which outlines the program of the book, Wright begins with a review of the antecedents of the current scholarship, particularly the work of F. C. Baur and the history of religions school and the discussion of Christian origins as distinct from Judaism as Christianity moved into the Hellenistic context. The other major figure he considers here is Albert Schweitzer who first challenges the “forensic” understanding of justification as central to Paul’s thought with the proposal that “being in Christ” is central.

Most of the book considers three schools of thought in Pauline studies. The first is the “new perspective”. Here Wright deals with the work of E. P. Sanders and J. D. G. Dunn, who worked to understand the Jewish origins of Paul’s thought, working with the rich emerging material on first century AD Judaism. In many ways, Wright’s own work is closely associated with this school, although he particularly differentiates himself from Sanders in arguing that the central idea of Paul’s thought is not “participation in Christ” but rather the “covenant faithfulness of Christ” which has been extended to the Gentiles. More briefly, Wright engages his “old perspective” (Lutheran and Calvinist) critics.

The second school he discusses is the apocalyptic school arising from the work of Kasemann, whose proponents include J. C. Beker, M. C. DeBoer, and J Louis Martyn. Wright, while indeed acknowledging the place of apocalyptic, the inbreaking of a new age in Christ, he strongly differs with these thinkers, and particularly Martyn, who make this a centerpiece of Paul’s thought, and especially with Martyn’s treatment of Galatians, where he strongly questions Martyn’s exegesis.

The third school is that of social history, whose leading figure is Wayne Meeks, author of The First Urban Christians. Here Wright is genuinely appreciative of the insights into the kind of communities Paul formed in the Mediterranean cities where he planted churches. What he wishes for is more exegetical work linking this historical work with the Pauline corpus. He concludes this section by briefly considering the more recent political readings of Paul.

One senses that in his critique, Wright is trying to do two things. One is to plead for the integration of these three schools, which he has tried to do in his own work. The other is to plead the case for careful exegesis in conjunction with the historical and theological work of these perspectives. He notes that of the figures he studies, only Martyn has actually written a commentary on a Pauline work, Galatians.

I found myself at a disadvantage on two scores in reading this work. While familiar with some of Wright’s basic ideas about Paul, and the New Perspective, I haven’t read Paul and the Faithfulness of God (yet). I also have not read any of the scholars with whom he interacts except for Wayne Meeks, so I have to take Wright at his word. That said, his review of the field serves as a helpful introduction to the last fifty years of scholarship and points the way for the New Testament and Pauline scholar who wants to pursue these matters more deeply. And Wright sets a high standard for scholarship that is both critical and generous in the pursuit of truth. It is a delight to observe virtuosity in any discipline. This was clearly in evidence in Wright’s engagement with these scholars.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

Where Are The Reviews?

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Partially Read Books.jpgThat’s a question some of you who follow regularly may be wondering for a little while. I wonder if other reviewers have ever had this happen? You end up in the middle of a number of books at the same time! The picture right now represents my current reading stack minus a couple books I’m reading on Kindle. Notice all those bookmarks in the middle of my books! So I thought I would give you some “mid-book” updates, that hopefully I’ll remember not to rehash in the reviews. Consider it a taste of things to come.

I Beg to DifferI’ll begin with the top most book. Tim Muelhoff’s I Beg to Differ is a very practical book on one of the hardest relational challenges–having those difficult conversations around disagreements without creating relational discord. Muelhoff outlines a set of questions and approaches that I’m finding very helpful.

Paul and His Recent InterpretersThe “meatiest” book comes next. N.T. Wright’s Paul and His Recent Interpreters is described as a companion to his magisterial Paul and the Faithfulness of God, Wright’s definitive work on the Apostle Paul. In Paul and His Recent Interpreters, Wright engages the range of contemporary Pauline scholarship, including the criticism of his own work. Wish I had read Paul and the Faithfulness of God, but haven’t been able to wade through the two volumes that make up this work yet! Point is, we often read Paul in light of the Reformation rather than Paul’s Jewish context and may miss some crucial things as a result. Stay tuned to the review for more!

Destiny and PowerThe “fattest” book in the stack is Jon Meacham’s Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. I’ve liked the things I’ve read of Meacham, and this is no exception. Bush, the 41st president was a complex mix of character and ambition, that both led to the presidency and was his undoing after one term. His single term, and the shadow of his son’s presidency may obscure the significant things this man quietly accomplished, both as president, and in the rest of his life.

A Commentary on 1 and 2 ChroniclesEugene Merrill’s A Commentary on 1 and 2 Chronicles is probably not something you’d pick up unless you were teaching or preaching on these books. I’m reading it because it was sent to me to review (and I am teaching a Bible overview that includes these books). Good introductory materials as well as enough depth to inform of textual issues without being overwhelming to all but the specialist.

Falling UpwardThe last two books are not in the photograph because they are on my Kindle. One is Falling Upward by Richard Rohr. Rohr sees our lives in halves, each with their crucial tasks, the first half, preparing for the second. I’ve just started this and find his basic premise intriguing. I’m clearly in the second half (unless there is a medical miracle) and interested to see what he says about this.

HolinessFinally, my last book is one our Dead Theologians group is reading at present, J. C. Ryle’s Holiness. The version we are using includes all twenty sermons on this theme. Unlike some 19th century writers, Ryle is plain-spoken without being simplistic. He argues that growth in holiness, or the idea of becoming more like Christ, involves faith that actively strives for this goal.

All of this is rich reading. One decision I’ve made though, particularly after a comment on yesterday’s post is that I’m going to move Nine Tailors to the top of my reading pile. This commenter thought it “just might be Sayer’s best mystery.” After all this meaty reading, I’m ready for a good mystery!