Paul and His Recent Interpreters
Overview
This companion volume to N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God and Pauline Perspectives is essential reading for all with a serious interest in Paul, the interpretation of his letters, his appropriation by subsequent thinkers, and his continuing significance today. In the course of his masterly survey, Wright asks searching questions of all of the major contributors to Pauline studies since the Enlightenment.
This volume is essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in Paul and his continuing relevance for today. Logos Bible Software dramatically improves the value of the collection by enabling you to find what you’re looking for with unparalleled speed and precision. The Logos edition is fully searchable and easily accessible. Scripture passages link directly to your preferred English translation and to the original language texts, and important theological concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of resources in your digital library.
We also sell the rest of N. T. Wright’s Christian Origins and the Question of God series. For more on the New Perspective on Paul, check out the other two volumes in this part: Paul and the Faithfulness of God (2 vols.).
- A comprehensive engagement with Paul and his writings from one of the foremost Pauline scholars
- A survey of the major contributors to the study of Paul’s letters since the Enlightenment
Top Highlights
“This was the picture that dominated German scholarship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: (a) a focus on ‘religion’ as the primary category; (b) a sharp distinction between ‘Judaism’ and ‘Hellenism’, with Paul as the pioneer of ‘gentile Christianity’; (c) the centrality to Paul of ‘justification’, in Baur’s sense of a new spiritual experience. Sanders, Martyn and Meeks do not often refer to Baur, but his picture is the one they are ultimately rejecting.” (Pages 15–16)
“There are Beker’s two main themes in a nutshell. First, Paul’s central and coherent theme was ‘the triumph of God’, that is, the divine victory over the powers of evil. This victory, won on the cross, resulted in the new creation which, launched in the resurrection, is to be completed in the final triumph, which is yet to come. Second, Beker proposed that in Paul we find a rich mixture of this coherent overall theme and of the varied expressions called forth by the ‘contingent’ situations to which his letters were addressed.” (Pages 135–136)
“The ‘apocalyptic triumph’ in which God wins the victory over the forces of evil, highlighting the ‘cosmic’ dimensions of Paul’s gospel rather than focusing on the ‘individual’ meaning, has become, in many circles, the new orthodoxy.” (Page 136)
“A vital part of this task, one which would prove fateful a century after Baur’s day in social and political life (ironically!) as well as in theology and exegesis, was his insistence that it was essential to break Christianity off from its Jewish roots.” (Page 13)
“First, Dunn accepts a good deal of Sanders’s case about Judaism, but insists that Sanders has still not read Paul in the right way.” (Page 90)
The sweep of Wright’s project as a whole is breathtaking. It is impossible to give a fair assessment of his achievement without sounding grandiose: no New Testament scholar since Bultmann has even attempted—let alone achieved—such an innovative and comprehensive account of New Testament history and theology.
—Richard B. Hays, George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament, Duke Divinity School
Eminently accessible to students, scholars will find it interesting and provocative. It deserves a place of privilege on the bookshelf of any serious student of the New Testament.
—Jack Dean Kingsbury, Union Presbyterian Seminary
- Title: Paul and His Recent Interpreters
- Author: N. T. Wright
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Publication Date: 2014
- Pages: 384
N. T. Wright is the former bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world’s leading Bible scholars. He is now research professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of over 50 books, including the ‘For Everyone’ guides to the New Testament, the highly acclaimed series, Christian Origins and the Question of God, and the best-selling Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, and Virtue Reborn.
Reviews
2 ratings
Maryellen J Lewis
12/8/2016
Romulo de Amorim Correa
3/22/2016
Steve Aeschbacher
11/9/2015
Hoping this is available soon. It is confusing why Logos is getting this so long after other places :(
