A Theology of Paul and His Letters: The Gift of the New Realm in Christ (Biblical Theology of the New Testament | BTNT)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
A landmark study of the apostle’s writings by one of the world's leading Pauline scholars
This highly anticipated volume gives pastors, scholars, and all serious students of the New Testament exactly what they need for in-depth study and engagement with one of Christian history's most formative thinkers and writers. A Theology of Paul and His Letters is a landmark study of the apostle’s writings by one of the world’s leading Pauline scholars Douglas J. Moo. Fifteen years in the making, this groundbreaking work is organized into three major sections:
- Part 1 provides an overview of the issues involved in doing biblical theology in general and a Pauline theology in particular. Here Moo also sets out the methodological issues, formative influences, and conceptual categories of Paul’s thought.
- Part 2 moves on to Paul’s New Testament writings, where Moo describes each Pauline letter with particular relevance to its theology.
- Part 3 offers a masterful synthesis of Paul’s theology under the overarching theme of the gift of the new realm in Christ.
Engaging, insightful, and wise, this substantive, evangelical treatment of Paul's theology offers extensive engagement with the latest Pauline scholarship without sacrificing its readability. This volume brings insights from over thirty years of experience studying, teaching, and writing about Paul into one comprehensive guide that will serve readers as a go-to resource for decades to come.
The Biblical Theology of the New Testament (BTNT) series provides upper college and seminary-level textbooks for students of New Testament theology, interpretation, and exegesis. Pastors and discerning theology readers alike will also benefit from this series. Written at the highest level of academic excellence by recognized experts in the field, the BTNT series not only offers a comprehensive exploration of the theology of every book of the New Testament, including introductory issues and major themes, but also shows how each book relates to the broad picture of New Testament Theology.
- Offers a masterful synthesis of Paul’s theology under the overarching theme of the gift of the new realm in Christ
- Describes each Pauline letter with particular relevance to its theology
- Provides an overview of the issues involved in doing biblical theology in general and a Pauline theology in particular
Top Highlights
“Yet the important point is that, however developed, Paul’s teaching stands in continuity with the teaching of Jesus. Paul probably assumes a fair degree of acquaintance among his listeners with the story and teaching of Jesus. But the needs of his churches, living in such a different environment than first-century Palestine, required new formulations of Christian truth.” (Page 27)
“Paul grew up with an intimate understanding of the Scriptures. But that understanding was mediated by the Second Temple Jewish reading of Scripture that Paul was exposed to as a child in his home and in his education under Gamaliel in Jerusalem.” (Page 24)
“What we call ‘Paul’s theology’ is our attempt to describe the coherent set of beliefs that lie behind and generate the various specific teachings found in his letters. This set of beliefs, in turn, is Paul’s reflection on the Christ event. It is that event, whose significance was brought home to Paul at his conversion, that generated Paul’s theology. However, Paul developed his theology in constant interaction with several shaping influences: most notably the Old Testament, Second Temple Jewish thought, early Christian teaching, and the teaching of Jesus.” (Page 16)
“Paul’s theological vocabulary was shaped by the Old Testament and his Jewish environment. It is therefore generally agreed that, overall, the first and best place to look when we want to unpack the meaning of a key term in Paul is the Old Testament, especially in Greek.” (Page 20)
“Perhaps a better image, then, at least for my purposes, is the roundabout that one finds along some highways, especially in the United Kingdom. The road from exegesis to systematics and application is not an uninterrupted super highway. Feeding into our biblical theology are several roads, which we may compare to the traffic from secondary roads that merge into the main through road at a roundabout. My point here, then, is that we perhaps have to abandon, or at least modify, the notion that our biblical work proceeds in a linear fashion from exegesis to biblical theology to systematic theology. These disciplines are inevitably mixed up with each other.” (Pages 6–7)
Reviews
2 ratings
Alessandro
12/9/2022
A very fine pauline theology. Also useful for students. I'd say this can be considered already to be among the best ones of the last 20 years. The Bibliography is rich and not limited to English and German works.Alessandro
11/5/2022
