Faithlife StaffDesigning and maintaining The Paul Page has been an incredible experience. Ten years ago, I designed a personal web page “dedicated to the new perspective on Paul,” threw up a few articles, and began inserting links to on-line articles...
by Mark M. Mattison Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version. Depending upon one’s point of view, the current state of Pauline studies is either exciting or alarming. Traditional...
Guest AuthorTraditionally, dikaioumai, ‘to be justified’, has been understood in general as ‘to be put in right relation with God’. Arndt-Gingrich defines it: ‘to be acquitted, be pronounced and treated as righteous, and thereby become dikaios (righteous)...
by Edward L. Hamilton Over the last three decades, a series of scholarly developments known as the “new perspective on Paul” has challenged traditional interpretations of the theology of the Pauline epistles, particularly Galatians and...
N.T. Wright is one of the prominent voices of what has been labeled the “New Perspective on Paul,” a currently debated subject in the Church today. The crux of the “New Perspective” is a redefining of Paul’s writings on justification/righteousness...
Book Review N.T. Wright, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1992, 560 pp. This massive undertaking lays the epistemological, literary, and historical foundations for Wright’s projected five-volume series (now stretching into six)...
Book Review James D.G. Dunn, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2008, 551 pp. When James D.G. Dunn delivered his Manson Memorial Lecture in 1982, he set out to sketch an emerging paradigm in current Pauline studies. Though it wasn’t...
Book Review Michael B. Thompson (Cambridge: Grove Books Unlimited), 2002, 28 pp. This little booklet from the Grove Biblical Series is probably the best introduction to the new perspective published to date in evangelical circles. Thorough yet...
Essay Review Krister Stendahl, “The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West” in Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress), 1976, pp. 78-96. First published in English in Harvard Theological Review, 56...
by Kevin Bywater Professor Francis Watson (currently at the University of Aberdeen) has migrated from being a rather energetic, if a bit eccentric, proponent of “the new perspective on Paul” to being a vocal and determined critic of the same. Though...
Editor’s note: This article is an edited transcript of the second of a two-part conversation recorded on October 25, 2004. The original audio file can be downloaded from New Testament Seminar: Audio Archives, and the complete Conversation can be...
by Rance Darity “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are...
Book Review John G. Gager (Oxford University Press), 2000, 198 pp. Reviewed by Robert Orlando Columbia University, Religious Studies Dept. Another book on Paul? Yes, the “new” Paul. Who is this new Paul? John Gager’s answer: the...
Book Review John G. Gager (Oxford University Press), 2000, 198 pp. Reviewed by Jeffrey Krantz In his recent book, Reinventing Paul, Gager has perhaps less reinvented than recovered the Apostle to the Gentiles. Through a concise review of the results...
Book Review John G. Gager, William H. Danforth Professor of Religion at Princeton University (Oxford UniversityPress), 2000, 198 pp. When World War II finally ended in 1945 and thereafter, as the details of the Nazi Holocaust became known, there was...
Book Review John L. Meech (Oxford University Press), 2006, 192 pp. This book from the AAR Academy Series is an impressive interdisciplinary work which moves nearly seamlessly through the fields of biblical theology, systematic theology, and...
Book Review James D.G. Dunn, ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.), 2001, 376 pp. Though not an introductory book to the subject, nor a book for beginners, Paul and the Mosaic Lawis nevertheless an indispensable work for those studying...
Book Review Morna D. Hooker (Oxford: One World Publications), 2003, 176 pp. If you’re looking for an introductory textbook on Paul, you probably won’t find a better one thanMorna D. Hooker’s Paul: A Short Introduction. Concise yet...
Book Review Tom Holland, Scotland, UK: Mentor, 2004, 392 pp. Generally speaking, conservative Reformed criticisms of the new perspective on Paul strike me as lackluster and predictable. That cannot be said, however, of Tom Holland’s new book, which...
by Wan Chee Keong Traditionally, justification has been understood as God’s once-for-all, forensic declaration that someone is ‘in the right.’ In spite of its shortcomings, ‘the new perspective on Paul’ has recovered other long-neglected...
by Mark M. Mattison On March 20, 2006, Tom Holland of the Evangelical Theological College of Wales spoke at the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, a conservative institution in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His lecture, entitled “A Reformed Response...
by N.T. Wright Wright submits the following response to Paul Barnett with the caveat that he is not entirely happy being part of what could appear a monochrome “new perspective,” since it’s a complex phenomenon. What follows was...
by Edward L. Hamilton When comparing the message of Jesus in the gospels with that of Paul in Romans or Galatians, one (sooner or later) cannot help but be struck by the apparent disparity in attention given to the subjects of...
by Michael F. Bird Last Update: 30 April 2006 About this Bibliography Introductions to the NPP Antecedents to Sanders Works by E.P. Sanders Articles Monographs Justification Law and “Works of the Law” Studies on Judaism in Light of the NPP...
by Edward L. Hamilton What is grace, and why should we know about it? Grace is the universal quality of God’s redemptive acts throughout history, the sense in which whatever mercy or love God chooses to extend to us is a consequence of His own...
by Pamela Eisenbaum In Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (1977), Krister Stendahl argued convincingly for dispensing with the notion of conversion as applied to Paul’s religious experience, and for substituting the “call” of Paul.1...
by Wan Chee Keong If E.P. Sanders’ characterization of first century rabbinical Judaism as ‘covenantal nomism’, with its emphasis on ‘God’s goodness and generosity, his encouragement of repentance and offer of...
by Aram DiGennaro In many current milieux (I would describe mine as 21st century North American post/modern, post/industrial, and post/imperial), views of evangelism must overcome at least three obstacles in order for the church’s witness to...
by Mark M. Mattison Robert Orlando (robo@nexusmediasite.com) is a writer, director, and editor who also happens to have studied with Alan F. Segal, author of Paul the Convert: The Apostolate and Apostasy of Saul the Pharisee. Orlando is creating a...
by James D.G. Dunn The following response to Carl Trueman is part of a larger project, currently underway, to respond to critics of the new perspective on Paul. Having finished his recent work on Jesus, Dunn is turning his attention again to the new...