504 - The Conversation Continues: Studies in Paul & John in Honor of J. Louis Martyn

The Conversation Continues: Studies in Paul & John in Honor of J. Louis Martyn

Edited by Beverly R. Gaventa and Robert T. Fortna

Nashville, Abingdon, 1990. 400 Pp. $29.95.

This sheaf of twenty-six essays by leading New Testament scholars is a fine tribute to Dr. Martyn, who pioneered a two-level historical interpretation of John's Gospel and is currently preparing a major commentary on Galatians. A number of the articles treat broad topics: the nature of Pauline theology (Victor Furnish), contradictory cosmologies in Paul (J. Christiaan Beker), the early history of the Roman church (Raymond Brown), Corinthian conflicts (William Baird), Thessalonian communications (Abraham Malherbe), Paul's nobility or self-centeredness in Philippians (Paul Minear and Robert Fortna), Pauline chronology (John Knox), Martyn's paradigmatic contribution to Johannine studies (D. Moody Smith), Johannine Christology (Marinus de Jonge, Wayne Meeks, and Reginald Fuller), the Beloved Disciple (Schuyler Brown), and Matthew's Messianism (W. D. Davies). There are also studies of individual passages: Robert Hamerton-Kelly and Paul Meyer on Romans 7, Leander Keck on Romans 15:7-13, Barbara Hall on 1 Corinthians 9:1923, John Koenig on 2 Corinthians 3-5, E. P. Sanders on Galatians 2:11-14, Beverly Gaventa on Galatians 4:19, and Walter Wink on Colossians 1: 15-20. For the Gospel of John, there are probes of 1:1-18 (Oscar Cullmann), 5:28-29 (Nils Dahl), 7:53-8:11 (James Sanders), and 12:20-24 (Kiyoshi Tsuchido).

Each of the essays should appeal to scholars, pastors, and students as both important and readable. Yet, some may be earmarked as particularly likely to stimulate further fruitful "conversations." Among those devoted to Paul, the essays by Furnish, Gaventa, Knox, and Meyer belong in this category. Of those on Johannine subjects, I nominate the ones by Schuyler Brown, Dahl, Meeks, and Smith.

David M. Hay, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.