NT395 Perspectives on Paul: Reformation and the New Perspective
Overview
Modern interpreters of Paul’s writings have typically assessed these texts in light of the exegetical and theological work of John Calvin, Martin Luther, and Philip Melanchthon. In the last few decades, a contrasting interpretive outlook—the “New Perspective” on Paul—has been articulated and developed by N. T. Wright and other scholars. This New Perspective, relying on a different set of assumptions regarding the Jewish context in which Paul lived and wrote, presents a different understanding of many of Paul’s core teachings. This Mobile Ed course offers a focused description of both the traditional perspective and the New Perspective, comparing them to one another and allowing students to assess Paul’s view of man, conscience, and sin. You will be led through an example text, providing you with interpretation skills that will allow you to explore the New Testament and determine the true relationship between faith and works in each text.
Top Highlights
“And so Paul does not, on this view, oppose faith in Christ to works righteousness but instead to the identification of righteousness with Jewish identity.” (source)
“Dunn’s work meant that what Paul is objecting to is the insistence that it’s necessary to become Jewish in order to be righteous before God.” (source)
“James D. G. Dunn argued that the works of the law are actually not works done in an attempt to earn righteousness but instead are, in particular, those aspects of the Jewish law that serve to mark the boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. And those boundary markers—those key distinguishing features of Jewish life as opposed to Gentile life—are circumcision, the observance of the food laws, and the observance of the Sabbath.” (source)
“Each generation of readers has brought and will bring different questions to the Bible. The answers that are found then shape the preunderstanding and questions that the following generations of readers bring to the text. As a result, each generation of readers will understand the Bible differently.’” (source)
“We are going to have a triple focus. We’re going to be concerned with the first author and the first readers—with what Paul was trying to say to the original recipients of his letters—but secondly, our concern is going to be with interpretation throughout the history of the church.” (source)
- Title: NT395 Perspectives on Paul: Reformation and the New Perspective
- Author: Stephen J. Chester
- Series: Logos Mobile Education
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Print Publication Date: 2016
- Logos Release Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Courseware
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul › Theology; Education › Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul--Criticism, interpretation, etc; Education › Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul--Theology
- Resource ID: LLS:NT395CHESTER
- Resource Type: Courseware Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2019-06-20T22:05:27Z
Stephen J. Chester is academic dean and professor of New Testament at North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago, the seminary of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He appreciates North Park as a context where “the life of the mind, the goal of practical ministry, and the need for a deep devotional life are held together as equal values.” Dr. Chester is from the UK and came to North Park in 2006, having previously served on the faculty of International Christian College, Glasgow. He is ordained in the Church of Scotland, and is the author of Conversion at Corinth: Perspectives on Conversion in Paul’s Theology and the Corinthian Church and one of the coauthors of Perspectives on our Struggle with Sin: Three Views of Romans 7. He has become deeply interested in the history of Pauline interpretation and is currently writing Righteousness in Christ: Paul, the Reformers, and the New Perspective (forthcoming).
Dr. Chester’s ministry commitments and experiences have largely been in urban contexts. He is married to Betsy, a kindergarten teacher, and they have two adult sons, Iain and Mark. They are members of Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, a multiethnic church in a diverse neighborhood. Stephen enjoys his family, watching and refereeing soccer, and pitching in Chicago softball.