Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The “Lutheran” Paul and His Critics

by Stephen Westerholm

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2004

Overview

Here, finally, is a much-needed review and analysis of the divergent interpretations of Paul. With a clear head and winsome sense of humor, Stephen Westerholm compares the traditional understanding of Paul to more recent readings, drawing on the writings of key figures in the debate both past and present.

Westerholm first offers a detailed portrait of the “Lutheran” Paul, including the way such theologians as Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley have traditionally interpreted “justification by faith” to mean that God declares sinners righteous by his grace apart from works. Westerholm then explores how Paul has fared in the twentieth century, in which New Perspective readings of Paul see him teaching that Gentiles need not become Jews or observe Jewish law to be God’s people. The final section of the book looks anew at disputed areas of Paul’s theological language and offers compelling discussion on the place of both justification by faith and Mosaic law in divine redemption.

Key Features

• Compares traditional readings of Paul to modern interpretations
• Examines the New Perspective readings of Paul
• Offers compelling discussions on Paul’s theological language

Contents

• Portraits of the “Lutheran” Paul
  • Augustine
  • Martin Luther
  • John Calvin
  • John Wesley
  • A Portrait of the “Lutheran” Paul
• Twentieth-Century Responses to the “Lutheran” Paul
  • Paul’s “Polemical Doctrine”: Wrede and Schweitzer
  • The Faith of Paul’s Fathers: Montefiore, Schoeps, and Sanders
  • Paul’s Robust Conscience: Kümmel and Stendahl
  • The “Righteousness of the Law”: Bultmann, Wilckens, and Sanders
  • The “Hobgoblin” of Consistency: Drane, Hübner, and Räisänen
  • Saint Paul against the Lutherans: Wright, Dunn, and Donaldson
  • “Lutheran” Responses
  • Other Perspectives
  • The Quotable Anti-“Lutheran” Paul
• The Historical and the “Lutheran” Paul
  • Matters of Definition, 1: “Righteousness” in Paul
  • Matters of Definition, 2: The “Law” in Paul
  • Matters of Definition, 3: Grace in Sanders’s Judaism
  • “Justification by Faith” in Paul’s Thought: The Evidence in Review
  • The Law in God’s Scheme
  • Grace Abounding to Sinners or Erasing Ethnic Boundaries?

Top Highlights

“In brief, and in the broadest of terms, then, (ordinary) dikaiosness, as contrasted with sin, must be what one ought to do,⁸ the dikaios (in the ordinary way) is the one who does dikaiosness,⁹ and to dikaiosify is to ‘declare (to be dikaios, or to be) innocent of wrongdoing.’” (Page 265)

“Hence, if δικαιοσύνη is not simply God’s gift of acquittal here, we must say it is that salvific activity by which God’s commitment to uphold the right is vindicated at the same time as sinners (those guilty of the undikaiosness of 1:18) who believe the gospel become dikaios (in accordance with Habakkuk’s dictum).” (Pages 285–286)

“In Romans 3:25–26 God’s dikaiosness (see sec. iv below) is said to be demonstrated precisely when he acquits sinners: God has not overlooked human sinfulness—that would violate his dikaiosness—but has directed its bane, not on the heads of the sinners themselves, but on Jesus Christ, who exhausted it when he died as an atoning sacrifice.” (Page 278)

“When they recognize this and cry to God for help, he grants them saving faith: faith to believe that Christ died for their sins, and that they are ‘justified’—pardoned and accepted by God—for Christ’s sake.” (Page 86)

“In short, ‘righteousness,’ by definition, represents what ‘sinners,’ as ‘sinners,’ lack and need. It is not, by definition, that from which Gentiles, as Gentiles, are excluded.” (Page 291)

Praise for the Print Edition

This eagerly awaited volume is a gem. After years of debate about the ‘new perspective,’ a debate bogged down with multiple confusions, Stephen Westerholm describes and analyzes all the main viewpoints on Paul’s theology of law, grace, and justification from Augustine onward. With enviable clarity, incisive observation, and shafts of humor, Westerholm reaffirms and refines the ‘old perspective’ while also incorporating the strong points of the new.

—John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, Durham University

Written with sparkling humor, this book is a landmark work both in its treatment of the vast scholarly literature and in its crisp exegesis of Paul himself. Perspectives Old and New on Paul is proof again, if proof were needed, that Stephen Westerholm is still head and shoulders above almost everyone else as an interpreter of Paul.

—Simon J. Gathercole, senior lecturer in New Testament studies and director of studies at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University

With his clear head and winsome sense of humor, Westerholm has once again produced one of the most insightful and readable studies available on the role of the Mosaic law, divine grace, and Christian faith in Pauline theology.

—Frank Thielman, Presbyterian Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

Product Details

• Title: Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The “Lutheran” Paul and His Critics
• Author: Stephen Westerholm
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2004
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Pages: 508
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul › Criticism, interpretation, etc.--History; Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul › Theology; Lutheran Church › Doctrines
• ISBNs: 9780802848093, 0802848095
• Resource ID: LLS:PRSPCTVSLDCRTCS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:26:34Z

About Stephen Westerholm

Stephen Westerholm (b. 1949) is a Canadian scholar and associate professor of biblical studies at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. He received BA and MA degrees from the University of Toronto and a ThD from the University of Lund (Sweden). He is noted for his work in Pauline studies and is most recently known for his interaction with the New Perspective on Paul.