|
| Christian news worldwide |
 Home |
 Archives |
 Subscriptions |
 Adverts |
 Find a church |
 About us |
 Contact us |
 Site Map |
 PrintableVersion Rediscovering PaulAn introduction to his world, letters and theologyHumanly speaking?REDISCOVERING PAUL As indicated by the IVP’s Apollos imprint, this book is written at an academic level although a fairly basic one. The authors had in mind particularly students doing an introductory course on Paul. Their starting point is that modern Christians, whether from West or East, tend to read back into Paul’s writings their own cultural assumptions. Doubtless all of us need to be reminded of our tendency to make any part of the Bible, not merely the Pauline epistles, say what we want it to say. The first three chapters put Paul’s letters in the context of the world in which he lived, contemporary customs of letter writing and, finally, his conversion, call and the chronology of his subsequent ministry. There is helpful and interesting material here, although I am uneasy about the implication that much of his teaching (such as church discipline being a corporate responsibility, p.30) derives from ideas and customs common in the Mediterranean world of his day. Is he not profoundly counter cultural? The final chapters deal, in a summary way, with Paul’s theology, his legacy and the relevance of his letters to the church down the ages. But the central chapters provide a brief summary of each of his epistles and comments on some salient points. These add little or nothing to what is available more adequately and more helpfully in basic commentaries and expositions such as the Tyndale and Bible Speaks Today series. Some of the comments irked me. Here are some examples. ‘Most of his letters are filled with vitriolic language against many things Jewish’ (p.201); something of an overstatement I think! ‘Paul was incorporated into Christ through faith and baptism’ (p.195). What does the writer mean by baptism? A reference a few pages earlier suggests water baptism. That is not how I read 1 Corinthians 12.13. ‘There is no doubt that Romans contains some of Paul’s best work’ (p.171). This sounds a bit like a university teacher’s comment on his students’ essays! Is not all of the apostle’s writing, preserved in Scripture, the Word of God? If so, can we say (should we say) that some of it is better than other parts? Incidentally, why do some avowedly evangelical academics seem intent on writing as though the Bible is nothing more than a human book rather than explicitly arguing from the standpoint that it is a divinely inspired one? Some important questions are raised but not clearly answered. Commenting on Galatians 4.4,5 the writers say: ‘According to some interpreters, the sending of the Son implies his pre-existence’. Apart from a footnote directing us to a couple of examples, nothing further is said. I do not doubt that the writers believe in Jesus’s pre-existence, but it is a pity they did not take the opportunity of saying so, even if they are not sure that the text in question, in itself, proves the point! There are several references, at the least implicitly favourable, to the ‘new perspective’ on Paul and the doctrine of justification argued by E.P. Sanders and others. (Books by J.G. Dunn and N.T. Wright are the recommended reading on Paul’s theology). Many EN readers, like me, will find that disappointing. I see that IVP has just published another book on Paul (A Bird’s-eye View of Paul by Michael Bird (!)), which I suspect may be less academic but more helpful than this one — even for first-year theological students as well as preachers and others with Bible teaching responsibilities. Peter Seccombe, © Evangelicals Now - June 2008 |
|
