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# Four Views on the Apostle Paul (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology)

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Four Views on the Apostle Paul (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) eBook : Zondervan, Bird, Michael F., Campbell, Douglas A., Nanos, Mark D., Johnson, Luke Timothy, Schreiner, Thomas R., Bird, Michael F., Gundry, Stanley N.: desertcart.co.uk: Books

Review: This is a very interesting and informative book. I had no idea that there were so many schools of thought about Paul's theology (I still fall in line with Schreiner and believe in grace alone through faith and substitutionary atonement). This is a good companion book to "The Nature of the Atonement," which addresses the center of Christ's work of atonement (Schreiner also contributed to this text). I recommend it for anyone interested in Pauline studies
Review: The book follows the pattern of the “Counterpoints” series, whereby each view receives responses from the sparring partners. The Reformed view on Paul is presented by Thomas R. Schreiner. Schreiner summarises Paul’s framework of thought in this way: “the apostle teaches that the new exodus, the new covenant, and the new creation have arrived in Christ. But a crucial proviso must immediately be introduced. Even though the new age has been inaugurated in Jesus Christ, it has not been consummated.” Also “One of Paul’s fundamental frameworks, then, is the already but not yet character of his eschatology.” The substitutionary death of Christ on the cross is appropriated by faith in Christ (objective genitive) and repentance. Thus forensic justification plays a key role in salvation. Schreiner surprisingly affirm salvation as a process that awaits consummation in future. Although justification does not mean moral transformation of a Christian and is not based on good works, “the good works constitute necessary evidence that one is justified” (a point very similar to that of J. Dunn and N. T. Wright). Schreiner’s supersessionism is evident in his understanding of the church in Paul as the “assembly of God” in the OT and in spiritual circumcision as initiation in Christ’s community: “Such appropriation suggests that it is fitting to say that the church of Jesus Christ is the “true” Israel for Paul.” Also “Indeed, ethnic Jews who fail to believe in Jesus are not saved (9:30-10:21, esp. 10:1) and hence do not belong to God’s people.” The second position is that of a Roman Catholic, Timothy Luke Johnson. He gave a very broad survey of Paul’s theology with plenty of textual references. It was interesting to observe how close Reformed and Catholic positions can be when the text of Pauline corpus (and not technical dogmatic formulations) is closely followed. The third perspective is a “Post-New Perspective” account by Douglas A. Campbell. Campbell supports the new approach to Judaism propagated by the NPP, but disagrees that Dunn’s understanding of “works of the law” as ethnic boundary markers resolves the problem of “Lutheran” Paul. Campbell suggests the key to unlock Paul’s theology is to understand the apostle’s gospel as revelation of the triune God and his mission in the world. Romans 5-8 is the key passage to comprehend Pauline theology. It is commendable to see Campbell’s claim that Paul works with the view of a triune God, whereby the persons of the Godhead are fully divine and their activities are perichoretic in nature or as Campbell calls it “an inchoate trinitarian grammar.” Campbell believes that ethnic, social and gender distinctions will be transcendent: “The brothers are consequently related to one another personally and even narratively, and in bodily terms, but not biologically or ethnically. The community is constituted in some sense beyond gender and race.” According to Campbell, Paul works retrospectively from solution (Christ’s revelation that enlightens the problem) to plight (the problem of sin). Campbell follows Kümmel, suggesting that Paul in Rom 7 is not describing personal inner torment under the Torah. Thus Rom. 7 should remind the brothers of a constant threat to turn away from freedom of Christ to the demands of Torah that lead to agony and death. Finally, Mark D. Nanos presents a fully-Jewish Torah-observant Paul. Nanos claims that it is misleading interpretations of Paul by Christians that depict a distorted picture of Judaism and cause many Jewish scholars to disregard Paul in general. Both Jews and Christians misunderstood Paul, who was a first century Torah-observant Jew, representing a variant of a first century Judaism with a focus on Jesus Christ. Paul’s mission after his Damascus experience was to bring God’s Word to the nations so that through the restoration of Israel all the nations would be reconciled with the God of Israel. The application of Torah requirements varies depending on identity of a person: “the dissociation from Torah fidelity described in Paul’s position on Torah for non-Jews does not extend to all of humankind as if it applied equally to Jews, including Christ-following Jews….So-called freedom from Torah only applies specifically to “non-Jews who are Christ-followers.” So in Christ Jews remain Jews and gentiles remain gentiles, so that God would be God of the nations and not only the God of Jews or only the God of gentiles. Schreiner correctly contends that Paul continued to keep the Torah faithfully on the evidence of such passages as 1 Cor 9:20-21 (cf. Col 2:16-23). Michael F. Bird presents very helpful summary of these views and their respective critiques. As it is usually the case, it is better to compare the views before contrasting them. If I would choose the best points from all four views, it would be (Campbell’s) Paul with Trinitarian framework who taught those who are justified by God experience salvation as transformation and union with Christ (Johnson), demonstrating authenticity of their righteous status by good works until the consummation of time (Schreiner) and accepting each other as Jews and gentiles alike, preserving respective ethnic identities in Christ (Nanos).

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | B006FPKO2S |
| Accessibility  | Learn more |
| Best Sellers Rank | 652,682 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) 789 in New Testament Criticism & Interpretation 2,262 in Christian Reference (Kindle Store) 2,758 in Christian Theological Reference |
| Customer reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (106) |
| Enhanced typesetting  | Enabled |
| File size  | 822 KB |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0310572541 |
| Language  | English |
| Page Flip  | Enabled |
| Part of series  | Counterpoints: Bible and Theology |
| Print length  | 363 pages |
| Publication date  | 7 Aug. 2012 |
| Publisher  | Zondervan Academic |
| Screen Reader  | Supported |
| Word Wise  | Enabled |
| X-Ray  | Enabled |

## Images

![Four Views on the Apostle Paul (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51RV8m9AA+L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by A***. on 6 March 2013*

This is a very interesting and informative book. I had no idea that there were so many schools of thought about Paul's theology (I still fall in line with Schreiner and believe in grace alone through faith and substitutionary atonement). This is a good companion book to "The Nature of the Atonement," which addresses the center of Christ's work of atonement (Schreiner also contributed to this text). I recommend it for anyone interested in Pauline studies

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by E***D on 14 July 2013*

The book follows the pattern of the “Counterpoints” series, whereby each view receives responses from the sparring partners. The Reformed view on Paul is presented by Thomas R. Schreiner. Schreiner summarises Paul’s framework of thought in this way: “the apostle teaches that the new exodus, the new covenant, and the new creation have arrived in Christ. But a crucial proviso must immediately be introduced. Even though the new age has been inaugurated in Jesus Christ, it has not been consummated.” Also “One of Paul’s fundamental frameworks, then, is the already but not yet character of his eschatology.” The substitutionary death of Christ on the cross is appropriated by faith in Christ (objective genitive) and repentance. Thus forensic justification plays a key role in salvation. Schreiner surprisingly affirm salvation as a process that awaits consummation in future. Although justification does not mean moral transformation of a Christian and is not based on good works, “the good works constitute necessary evidence that one is justified” (a point very similar to that of J. Dunn and N. T. Wright). Schreiner’s supersessionism is evident in his understanding of the church in Paul as the “assembly of God” in the OT and in spiritual circumcision as initiation in Christ’s community: “Such appropriation suggests that it is fitting to say that the church of Jesus Christ is the “true” Israel for Paul.” Also “Indeed, ethnic Jews who fail to believe in Jesus are not saved (9:30-10:21, esp. 10:1) and hence do not belong to God’s people.” The second position is that of a Roman Catholic, Timothy Luke Johnson. He gave a very broad survey of Paul’s theology with plenty of textual references. It was interesting to observe how close Reformed and Catholic positions can be when the text of Pauline corpus (and not technical dogmatic formulations) is closely followed. The third perspective is a “Post-New Perspective” account by Douglas A. Campbell. Campbell supports the new approach to Judaism propagated by the NPP, but disagrees that Dunn’s understanding of “works of the law” as ethnic boundary markers resolves the problem of “Lutheran” Paul. Campbell suggests the key to unlock Paul’s theology is to understand the apostle’s gospel as revelation of the triune God and his mission in the world. Romans 5-8 is the key passage to comprehend Pauline theology. It is commendable to see Campbell’s claim that Paul works with the view of a triune God, whereby the persons of the Godhead are fully divine and their activities are perichoretic in nature or as Campbell calls it “an inchoate trinitarian grammar.” Campbell believes that ethnic, social and gender distinctions will be transcendent: “The brothers are consequently related to one another personally and even narratively, and in bodily terms, but not biologically or ethnically. The community is constituted in some sense beyond gender and race.” According to Campbell, Paul works retrospectively from solution (Christ’s revelation that enlightens the problem) to plight (the problem of sin). Campbell follows Kümmel, suggesting that Paul in Rom 7 is not describing personal inner torment under the Torah. Thus Rom. 7 should remind the brothers of a constant threat to turn away from freedom of Christ to the demands of Torah that lead to agony and death. Finally, Mark D. Nanos presents a fully-Jewish Torah-observant Paul. Nanos claims that it is misleading interpretations of Paul by Christians that depict a distorted picture of Judaism and cause many Jewish scholars to disregard Paul in general. Both Jews and Christians misunderstood Paul, who was a first century Torah-observant Jew, representing a variant of a first century Judaism with a focus on Jesus Christ. Paul’s mission after his Damascus experience was to bring God’s Word to the nations so that through the restoration of Israel all the nations would be reconciled with the God of Israel. The application of Torah requirements varies depending on identity of a person: “the dissociation from Torah fidelity described in Paul’s position on Torah for non-Jews does not extend to all of humankind as if it applied equally to Jews, including Christ-following Jews….So-called freedom from Torah only applies specifically to “non-Jews who are Christ-followers.” So in Christ Jews remain Jews and gentiles remain gentiles, so that God would be God of the nations and not only the God of Jews or only the God of gentiles. Schreiner correctly contends that Paul continued to keep the Torah faithfully on the evidence of such passages as 1 Cor 9:20-21 (cf. Col 2:16-23). Michael F. Bird presents very helpful summary of these views and their respective critiques. As it is usually the case, it is better to compare the views before contrasting them. If I would choose the best points from all four views, it would be (Campbell’s) Paul with Trinitarian framework who taught those who are justified by God experience salvation as transformation and union with Christ (Johnson), demonstrating authenticity of their righteous status by good works until the consummation of time (Schreiner) and accepting each other as Jews and gentiles alike, preserving respective ethnic identities in Christ (Nanos).

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by Y***1 on 21 July 2020*

Book have Interesting perspectives about apostle Paul. It worth to read to increase your knowledge about New Testament.

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