Paul and His Recent Interpreters

by N. T. Wright

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 2015

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.

Key Features

• 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

Contents

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)

Praise for N. T. Wright’s Christian Origins series

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

Product Details

• Title: Paul and His Recent Interpreters
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Pages: 384

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Thomas “Tom” Wright (1948–) is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Christianity Today named him one of today's top theologians. 

Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, and recounts an awareness of God's presence from a young age—and that relationship with God ever since is reflected in his life and work. He's a prolific author; one of his most popular books, Surprised by Hope, frames the resurrection of the dead as the appropriate hope for all believers rather than an overemphasis on just "going to heaven when you die." He's among the leading theologians in the New Perspective on Paul debate. Wright has several honorary doctoral degrees, and in 2014, the British Academy awarded him the Burkitt Medal "in recognition of special service to biblical studies." In 2015, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Wright served as chaplain at Cambridge from 1978 to 1981, then as assistant professor of New Testament language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. Before becoming a chaplain, tutor, lecturer, and fellow at Oxford in 1986, Wright served as dean of Lichfield Cathedral, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, and the bishop of Durham from 2003–10. In addition to the entire New Testament for Everyone Series, some of N. T. Wright's books include The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, Who Was Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, God and the Pandemic, Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, and Simply Christian. He coauthored Jesus the Final Days with Craig A. Evans.