The New Perspective on Paul and the Law-- Reviewed

Ben Witherington: The New Perspective on Paul and the Law-- Reviewed

(The following is a brief section from my forthcoming two volume work on NT Theology and Ethics, entitled The Indelible Image. This portion of course is a subsection of the chapter on Paul.)

The ‘New Perspective’ on Paul

There is something of a small war going on in Pauline circles on the issue of ‘the New Perspective on Paul’ which actually also involves ‘the New Perspective on Early Judaism’. This sometimes heated debate was set in motion by the work of Ed Sanders beginning in 1977 with Paul and Palestinian Judaism, and followed in subsequent years by a series of equally influential studies such as Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, and Jesus and Judaism.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--> One of the great concerns or burdens of Sanders work was to demonstrate that the old, sometimes even anti-Semitic contrast between Christianity as a religion of grace and Judaism as a religion of works, including salvation by works, involves a caricature of early Judaism. He set in opposition to this notion the idea of covenantal nomism, that is that the obedience one reads about in the OT and early Jewish religion was not obedience in order to obtain right-standing with God, but obedience in response to the divine initiative which was prior. Sanders was particularly unhappy with older German Lutheran scholarship, that in his view perpetuated such stereotypes, and it was on the basis and back of his work that ‘the New Perspective on Paul’ was launched as well. ...

Comments

[codepoke]

Mike! How can you stop this here? Heartless, I say.

I'm itching to talk on this one. I'm a fan of both Jonathon Edwards and NT Wright, and simply don't see what everyone's up in arms about. NT says Paul was writing about the church/the kingdom, and mentioned justification along the way. And somehow that puts all my reformed heroes in a snit? What's that all about?

It's so obviously right on the surface, and even at the depths to which an ex-diesel mechanic can plumb, as to seem not to warrant a discussion. Obviously I'm not right about that one, anyway. :-)

[Michael W. Kruse]

Hey codepoke. This post is a quote, the opening paragpraph from Witherington's post. Click on the link if you want to read more.

"...simply don't see what everyone's up in arms about."

I'm with you, my friend. I don't get it either.

[kerryn]

Gidday Michael
haven't had the chance to 'stop by' for a while. (busy with my beautiful little daughters!) just wanted to say how much i have enjoyed perusing your blog for the last half an hour - keep up the great work! i love the topics you cover...
good job!
(-:
kerryn

[Michael W. Kruse]

Thanks Kerryn.

My selection of topics usually reflects either topics I have an on-going interest in (and this blog essentially becomes a way of archiving info about those topics) or topics that pretain to discussions that are present in my life at the moment, either here at the blog or elsewhere.

I'm glad my selections strike a chord with you!