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154 - The Theology of Paul's Letter to the Galatians |
The Theology of Paul's Letter to the Galatians
By James D. G. Dunn
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993. 161 pp. $44.95.
The Theology of the Shorter Pauline Letters
By Karl P. Donfried and I. Howard Marshall
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993. 208 pp. $49.95.
The Theology of the Later Pauline Letters
By Andrew T. Lincoln and A. J. M. Wedderburn
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993. 185 pp. $44.95.
These volumes all appear in Cambridge Press' New Testament Theology series, edited by James D. G. Dunn. Convinced that introductions to New Testament inevitably skimp on theological matters, that handbooks of New Testament theology slight many individual writings, and that commentaries lose sight of theology in a mass of historical and grammatical detail, the series undertakes to fill this lacuna with studies of the theology of individual New Testament writings. The laudable goal is to provide an account of the theology of each document as well as a discussion of its canonical context and its continuing influence in Christian faith and life.
Dunn's treatment of Galatians provides a clear and concise introduction to his own perspective on the letter and will give readers some sense of the larger debate. Studies of Galatians have proliferated rapidly in recent years, and the debate about the letter has at times become almost as heated as the letter itself. One way of characterizing the debate (while admittedly oversimplifying it) is that it concerns whether Galatians depicts the cross of Jesus Christ and all that follows from it as standing in continuity or discontinuity with the history of Israel. Dunn is a leading
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156 - The Theology of Paul's Letter to the Galatians |
advocate of continuity, as becomes clear when he depicts the "story of Jesus" as superimposed on the "story of Israel," and when he identifies as "the most concise summary of Paul's distinctive theology" his "final blessing on the Israel of God (6.16)." For Dunn, Paul and the other missionaries in the Galatian churches share "a warm appreciation of the eschatological significance of Christ and the cross, and of the importance of faith in Christ," but they simply disagree about the means by which Gentiles become heirs of Abraham. Even for those (like myself!) who insist that there are elements of continuity in Galatians, Dunn's picture considerably understates the conflict. What is at stake in this letter is not simply a matter of entrance requirements, but "new creation" itself.
The Theology of the Shorter Pauline Letters treats 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Karl P. Donfried), Philippians, and Philemon (I. Howard Marshall). For each letter, Donfried and Marshall provide a careful introduction to the critical issues of interpretation (for example, questions regarding the context of 1 Thessalonians, the authorship of 2 Thessalonians, the composition of the Philippians hymn), and the book will be especially useful because of the relative paucity of commentaries on these letters. Unfortunately, the theological perspectives of the letters are thereby slighted, so that the goal of the series itself seems to be undermined.
In The Theology of the Later Pauline Letters, A. J. M. Wedderburn (Colossians) and Andrew T. Lincoln (Ephesians) exemplify the promise of this series. Although the introductory matters are not slighted, each contributor quickly moves beyond them. Wedderburn does an especially good job with the question of the continuing significance of Colossians, acknowledging that it cannot be directly transported into the present but finding in its bold interpretation of earlier traditions a model for Christian reflection. Similarly, Lincoln, who has written a major commentary on Ephesians for the Word Biblical Commentary, considers the issue of calling in Ephesians as it relates to the contemporary preoccupation with matters of identity.
Lincoln is the only one of the five authors who acknowledges the difficulties inherent in the task of identifying the theology of a letter: What is the theology of a text and how is it to be located? Since these particular texts are religious, is their entire content to be regarded as theology? Or do only explicit faith statements or doctrinal formulations qualify as theology? How does a discussion of a letter's theology take into account the situation in which it was written? These questions have certainly played a prominent role in recent discussions of Pauline theology, and it seems odd to find them almost ignored in these volumes.
All of these books will be valuable additions to personal and institutional libraries, even if they do not quite fulfill the high hopes created by the series title.
Beverly Roberts Gaventa
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, NJ