Hans Deventer
March 27th, 2011, 08:26 AM
I guess the title is a play on the New Perspective on Paul. Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with this New Perspective so don't expect a thorough analysis of N.T. Wright's place in this respect here.
But I can tell you that in this book, he explains his hermeneutics when it comes to reading Paul and what that means.
So the first chapters deal with "Creation and Covenant", "Messiah and Apocalyptic" and "Gospel and Empire". All these, Wright argues, play a major role in Paul's thinking. He then proceeds to discuss the consequences of these for Paul's theology in the chapters "Rethinking God", "Reworking God's People", "Reimagining God's Future" and "Jesus, Paul and the Task of the Church".
I especially like the conclusion, where he talks about how we need to find a way through post modernism. "I believe it is part of the task of the church today to accept the postmodern critique of modernity but to insist that it is not the last word". (p 172) "With Paul there is a way through, not to a reconstruction of an arrogant modernist Self, but to a new way of being human, a way that is rooted, through baptism, in the Messiah, or more particularly in the love of the one God revealed to him. If anyone is in Christ - new creation! Not 'Cogito, ergo sum' but 'Amor, ergo sum': I am loved, therefore I am. That is where Paul is in Galatians, 1 Corinthians and above all Romans".
"Modernity claimed to be able to know all things objectively. Postmodernity has show up the claim as power-play. But with Paul, as with much Christian thinking, the basic Christian mode of knowing is love. In love, the person who is loving is simultaneously affirming the Otherness of that which is loved and their deep involvement with that Other." (p 173)
But I can tell you that in this book, he explains his hermeneutics when it comes to reading Paul and what that means.
So the first chapters deal with "Creation and Covenant", "Messiah and Apocalyptic" and "Gospel and Empire". All these, Wright argues, play a major role in Paul's thinking. He then proceeds to discuss the consequences of these for Paul's theology in the chapters "Rethinking God", "Reworking God's People", "Reimagining God's Future" and "Jesus, Paul and the Task of the Church".
I especially like the conclusion, where he talks about how we need to find a way through post modernism. "I believe it is part of the task of the church today to accept the postmodern critique of modernity but to insist that it is not the last word". (p 172) "With Paul there is a way through, not to a reconstruction of an arrogant modernist Self, but to a new way of being human, a way that is rooted, through baptism, in the Messiah, or more particularly in the love of the one God revealed to him. If anyone is in Christ - new creation! Not 'Cogito, ergo sum' but 'Amor, ergo sum': I am loved, therefore I am. That is where Paul is in Galatians, 1 Corinthians and above all Romans".
"Modernity claimed to be able to know all things objectively. Postmodernity has show up the claim as power-play. But with Paul, as with much Christian thinking, the basic Christian mode of knowing is love. In love, the person who is loving is simultaneously affirming the Otherness of that which is loved and their deep involvement with that Other." (p 173)