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Title: The Theology of Paul the Apostle by James D. G. Dunn ISBN: 0-8028-3844-8 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: November, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: This has a theology of Romans chapters 9-11
Comment: Big books are sometimes useful for spreading out the obvious over so many pages that the relationship between ideas becomes as interesting as the alpha and omega. Paul mentioned God a lot in his letters. "The word `God' itself occurs 548 times in the Pauline corpus, 153 in Romans alone." (p. 28). Intellectually, the idea of God takes the most significance in theology, carried on still by those who follow in Paul's footsteps, with a humility emphasized in "the concluding doxology early on added to Romans: `to God, only, wise.' (Rom. 16.25)." (p. 32).
I rarely have any enthusiasm for religion as a church activity, particularly when it stifles humor as an instinctive defense of church ideas against the outright display of entertainment values, but intellectual study about religious doctrines is likely to be enlightening, even in such religious settings, where over-intellectualizing is likely to be condemned for its over-their-heads qualities but is sometimes tolerated in small quantities. As an apostle, Paul made some striking attempts to expound on a new form of freedom, possibly in a way that is ironic in Philemon 13: "while I am in the chains that the Good News has brought me," but sure that something good would result, as in Philemon 21: "I am writing with complete confidence that you will do even more than I ask." With such faith, it is not surprising that those associated with the church have maintained the ability to write, even at great length, as in THE THEOLOGY OF PAUL THE APOSTLE by James D. G. Dunn.
Certain philosophical and theological disputes have attempted to deal with the issues raised in Paul's letter to the Romans, and nine pages of the Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Writings (pp. 772-781) are required to locate all the mentions of its verses in this book. Although Jesus is pictured in the Gospels as being tested in his conversations with Pharisees and Sadducees, Paul was the monumental thinker who provided doctrines for thinking that Christianity was a religion with its own justification on a deep theological level. Dunn's awareness of this problem: "Paul himself, as Pharisaic Jew become apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, embodied one of the most painful of these tensions within himself. [See particularly section 19 below.]" (p. 19 [n. 54]) is indicated early in the book, in his discussion of the religious doctrines shared due to "evidently shared knowledge of the Jewish scriptures, presumably in most cases in their Greek (LXX) form." (pp. 15-16).
There is a short list in note 39 on page 13 of letters actually believed to be written by Paul, including Romans and Philemon, but stating "the majority regard Ephesians and the Pastorals as definitely post-Pauline (I side with the majority)." Those who think Ephesians is particularly uptight in ways that modern Americans are not, or shouldn't be, or wouldn't be if we were a thoroughly comic society, will be glad that we can stop blaming Paul for some things that uptight early church dignitaries wanted to put in the Bible anyway. Still, we are stuck with a lot of verses like "he who refrains from marriage will do better." (1 Corinthians 7:38).
The theology has a tremendous scope, even if humans are dealt with in anthropological presuppositions. Paul helped put Adam on the theological map, along with sin, death, the law, Jesus, Christ crucified, justification by faith, Israel, the church, and "the law of the Spirit." I already mentioned section 19, where the conflict between an existing religious tradition glorifying Israel and Paul's proclamations are greatest. In the book translated into English as RELIGION WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF MERE REASON, Kant belittled the idea of a religion that consecrated an entire people. Kant found Christianity to be superior in its morality because it attended to the individual motivations which he considered the basis for morality within his philosophy. Paul seems to be the main Biblical basis for this emphasis on the individual, though Christ's parable about separating sheep from the goats is worthy of this interpretation. Modern religion, as an intensely private interior aspect of individual existence, likely to be ridiculed if it is mentioned in connection with bloody conflicts, still holds a picture of God "who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?" (Rom. 8:32). Paul had enough knowledge of the Greek Jewish scriptures to quote them on the normality of such conflicts. "As it is written, `For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.'" (Rom. 8:36). Dunn tries to explain why Paul showed such concern for the Israelites.
"In our attempt to follow the course of Paul's own theologizing through Romans we have now reached ch. 9-11. At this point we are bound to stop short and take stock. For the function of Chs. 9-11 within Romans, and so also within Paul's theology, has always been a matter of some controversy. Why did Paul turn so abruptly to express his concern for his `kinsmen in terms of the flesh' (9.3)? He had reached such a wonderful climax of Christian assurance in 8.28-39. Anything following that would inevitably appear as something of an anticlimax. But why this sudden descent to depths of existential angst: `I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that my grief is great and the anguish of my heart unceasing. . . .' (9.1-2)?" (p. 500).
Rating: 3
Summary: Not good for a Bible study
Comment: I was looking for a book on Paul to use as a guide for a teenager Sunday School class. This is not that book. This is a real thesis on Paul. Excellent reference book though.
Rating: 4
Summary: Some Cautions
Comment: Dunn's book has received high praise. His scholarship and attention to detail are evident. Some, however, have called into question his advocacy of the so-called New Persepctive on Paul as being flawed in its presentation of Luther's understanding of Judaism. Read it, but read it with a critical eye.
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Title: Paul Apostle of the Heart Set Free by Frederick Fyvie Bruce ISBN: 0802847781 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Dictionary of Paul and His Letters/a Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, Daniel G. Reid ISBN: 0830817786 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: November, 1993 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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Title: Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion by E. P. Sanders ISBN: 0800618998 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: December, 1983 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, 3) by N. T. Wright ISBN: 0800626796 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.00 |
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Title: What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? by N. T. Wright, Tom Wright ISBN: 0802844456 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: June, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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