Scot Mcknight - Perspectives on Paul: Five Views

We have a common heritage in Pauline studiesnamely, our doctoral supervisor, James D. G. Dunn. Yet, B. J. did work under him in Pauline studies, while Scot did work on the Gospel of Matthew. Scot was studying with Dunn just after the original lecture about the New Perspective on Paulin fact, before it was The New Perspectiveand has watched the whole unfold. We wish to express our sadness that our beloved professor, Jimmy, passed away on June 26, 2020, after a short battle with cancer. Future generations of biblical exegetes and theologians will recognize him as one of the greatest biblical scholars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Every page of this bookand countless othersshows the presence of the formidable proposals Dunn offered scholarship on the apostle Paul.

In many ways, the decisive impetus for each of the perspectives here was the 1977 book by E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism . The book sought to demolish the typical stereotype of Judaism at work in much scholarship, but at the same time, and only in tentative ways, it opened the door to fresh analysis of Paul in light of Sanderss reconstruction of Judaism. These studies, even A. Andrew Dass traditional view, have taken new shape and angles because of Sanders.

This book is for professors, students, and pastors who want to know what is going on in recent Pauline scholarship and want to see civil engagement about the apostle Pauls theology in its context. There has been much mudslinging, begun among some who thought Sanderss view of Judaism and the New Perspective itself (though there is really no such thing, since it is more new perspectives ) undermined what they thought Paul was saying, and some of the criticism has landed and some of it is little more than repeating the mudslingers. Our hope is that this volume will help the whole church better come to terms with the apostle Paul and his great letters, which, we need to remind ourselves, are at the foundation of so much theology at work in the history of the church.

We are grateful for those who made this project possible, and we wish to thank especially Bryan Dyer at Baker. Next, we would like to thank the contributors for their willingness to present their views and respond to the other contributors in timely fashion. Also, Scot would like to acknowledge Northern Seminary and the Board of Trustees, and B. J. would like to acknowledge Azusa Pacific University, particularly the Department of Biblical and Religious Studies (Bobby Duke and Robert Mullins, dean and chair, respectively), as well as the Office of Research and Grants (Yvonne Rodriguez), which awarded him a Faculty Research Grant in view of this project.

Scot McKnight
B. J. Oropeza

. See the following for our commemorations of James D. G. Dunn: Scot McKnight, Rest in Peace, Jimmy, Jesus Creed (blog), Christianity Today , June 26, 2020, https://www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight/2020/june/rest-in-peace-jimmy.html; B. J. Oropeza, Memories of My Doktorvater, James D. G. Dunn (19392020), In Christ (blog), Patheos, June 26, 2020, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/inchrist/2020/06/memories-of-my-doktorvater-james-d-g-dunn-1939-2020/.

Books by E. P. Sanders

General Abbreviations

Bible Versions and Translations