I'm about done with David Horrell's An Introduction to the Study of Paul, second edition. It is a great book! Mark Goodacre, of Duke University, has a blurb on the front where he boldly asserts, "Put your other books on Paul to one side and begin here." Although Stephen Westerholm found this comment a bit much, I will agree that I have not found a better survey of Pauline studies yet.
I have generally used Tom Wright's What Saint Paul Really Said as my survey of Paul book and may still do so. But this book is a God-send for graduate students and serious students of Paul. It is almost the book I wanted to write a couple years back. Practically all the issues that are under debate in the field of Pauline studies are somewhere in this book. In a skilled hand it could save you years of groping around in the dark.
The second chapter covers the relationship between Acts and Paul and discusses the pre-believer Paul, including pre-Pauline formulae. The third chapter discusses his "conversion," or should we say his "call," as well as issues in Pauline chronology.
With the fourth chapter we are discussing Paul the letter writer and rhetorical criticism of his writings. Chapter 5 is a rather lengthy treatment covering Paul's theology: his theology, Christology, pneumatology, eschatology, ethics, and so forth. I would have tried to find a way to break this Behemoth up, but a skilled hand would be able to cover all the relevant issues by way of this chapter.
Chapter 6 deals specifically with Paul, the Law, and Israel. It's a difficult topic to survey, but all the key players are mentioned. Chapter 7 seems a bit oddly placed to me, but it deals with important matters of a sociological nature in the study of Paul, the character of his churches, etc... Chapter 8 then deals with the authorship of the disputed Paulines.
Hurray for this 164 page book. It was incredibly good for me and, especially if one has a guide, would be incredibly useful for a class intending to help a person survey the entire land of Pauline studies.
Congrats to David Horrell on this excellent book!
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3 comments:
I am beginning to believe that since the "law" are identity markers for "nations", and yet, Paul was making his point against ethnicity, Paul is really converted to and understanding of inclusion (vs. exclusion) "international relations".
Since the founding of our country, I believe that an open government, instead of the exclusive "religious government of the Jews" is what Paul is talking about...His conversion was one from a "religious commitment", i.e. a religion, to a revelation of an open and free society for all nations...His understanding of ethics became inclusive of Gentile nations,i.e. peoples for he understood that it was not about religion, though he used the Greek mythologies of his education to reformulate a "gospel" for those who were not included in Judiasm and he rebuked his Jewish brothers for withdrawing from Gentiles because they'd not "converted" to Judiasm ( the outward form of circumcision being "the mark" of acceptance)...
The faith of Abraham that the Reformers understood to be the justifier is not only because of faith in Jesus of Nazareth (just as "salvation" had been in Paul's day for Judiasm), but faith in THE God, who is above being named (as the Jews could not even say the name "Yahweh, as it was so holy)...
And ethics and the "dilemmas" that ethics breeds is what the "call" of the theological task today...
Can I borrow your copy the second week of school? You made me want tor ead it...
Absarutley.
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