New Perspective on Paul
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The New Perspective on Paul is the name given to a significant shift in how some New Testament scholars interpret the writings of Paul of Tarsus, particularly in regard to Judaism and the common Protestant understanding of Justification by Faith.
The New Perspective rose to prominence as a result of the work of Prof. E. P. Sanders in his 1977 book Paul and Palestinian Judaism, in which he argued that the Judaism of Paul's day had been wrongly caricatured by Protestant theology. Traditionally, it had been assumed that 1st-century Judaism was a religion of "works", whereby Jews believed they had to earn their salvation by keeping the law, also known as Legalism; and therefore when Paul spoke about "justification by faith" or the "justification of faith", he was referring to a new non-works-oriented way of salvation (being declared righteous by God) announced in Christ.
Sanders reframed the context to make law-keeping and good works a sign of being in the Covenant (marking out the Jews as the people of God) rather than deeds performed in order to accomplish salvation, a pattern of religion he termed covenantal nomism. If Sanders' perspective is regarded as valid, the traditional Protestant understanding of the doctrine of justification may have needed rethinking; for the interpretive framework of Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther, which had dominated Christian thinking for almost two millennia, was called into question.
Sanders's work has since been taken up by Professor James Dunn and N.T. Wright, Bishop of Durham, and the New Perspective has increased significantly in dominance in New Testament scholarship.
It has been severely criticized, however, particularly by conservative scholars in the Reformed tradition. It has been the subject of fierce debate between evangelicals in recent years, mainly due to N.T. Wright's increasing popularity in evangelical circles. Among the critics has been Baptist pastor John Piper, Presbyterian theologian Sinclair Ferguson, Prof. C.W. Powell ([1]) and Ligon Duncan, president and chair of the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
Recently, Dr. Barry Smith (Atlantic Baptist University) has claimed that "the new perspective's" challenge to the traditional view of Jewish faith practice as legalistic is misplaced (2005): he argues "that there is actually a tension in early Judaism between God as righteous judge and as merciful... The understanding of God in the sources vacillates between God as righteous judge and God as merciful, without coming down definitively on one side to the exclusion of the other." (publisher's book abstract).
A useful, short overview of the ongoing debate is provided by Thompson (2002).
[edit] Sources
- Badenas, Robert. Christ the End of the Law, Romans 10.4 in Pauline Perspective 1985 ISBN 0-905774-93-0. Argues that telos is correctly translated as goal, not end, so that Christ is the goal of the Law, end of the law would be antinomianism
- Dunn, James D.G. Jesus, Paul and the Law 1990 ISBN 0-664-25095-5. Collection of essays written throughout the 1980s, including the historic 1982 lecture "The New Perspective on Paul."
- Gathercole, Simon J. 2002. Where Is Boasting? Early Jewish Soteriology and Paul's Response in Romans 1-5. ISBN 0-8028-3991-6.
- Thompson, Michael B. 2002. The New Perspective on Paul. (Grove Biblical Series.) Cambridge: Grove Books. ISBN 1-85174-518-1. Also published as an e-book.
[edit] External links
- The Paul Page Extensive list of online articles relating to the New Perspective
- New Perspective on Paul (Theopedia, traditional Reformed perspective)
- Critique by Dr. Ligon Duncan
- Report on justification presented to the 73rd General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church; contains a doctrinal response to the New Perspective.
- Paul's Perspective a site operated by opponents of the New Perspective, but with content from both sides.
