The theology of Paul the Apostle

TL;DR: The Theology of Paul the Apostle, by James D. G. Dunn as discussed by the authors, is a complete account of the life and faith of the Apostle Paul, including a detailed analysis of all the authentic letters.

Abstract: The Theology of Paul the Apostle, by James D. G. Dunn. Grand Rapids/Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 1998. Pp. xvi + 808. $45.00/29.95. Into this massive volume Professor Dunn has poured both his vast learning and his passion for his hero, Paul. The result is detail (sometimes, perhaps, tedious) wedded with engagement (sometimes, certainly, enthusiastic). In his "Prolegomena" the author lays out the basic judgments that determine the structure and character of what is to follow. It is important to mention a few. ( 1 ) "Theology" is to be assigned a breadth that includes worship and ethics. "A theology remote from everyday living would not be a theology of Paul" (p. 9). (2) Paul's theology must be constructed out of a synthetic analysis of all the authentic letters. (3) Yet Paul's theology is more than the sum total of the statements in his letters, since they imply and depend upon a larger theological structure. Dunn uses the image of the iceberg: what we see suggests much of what we cannot see. This is dangerous water (the reader will pardon the metaphor), since it provides opportunity for the researcher to find just about anything. What Dunn finds is a flourishing Judaism, complete with frequent allusions to Torah and the teaching of Jesus. (4) As a structure for his book, Dunn proposes to use, as far as possible, Paul's outline in Romans, since that is Paul's own, most mature, structure. Along with a number of scholars, Dunn rejects the idea of a static "center" in Paul, although he is prepared to accept Beker's term, "coherence." Some allowance must be made for fluidity and even development. (5) And what should be the attitude of the researcher to Paul? Dunn states it clearly: "The most fruitful dialogues depend on a degree of sympathy of the one dialogue partner for the concerns of the other" (p. 12). This is preferable to "a hostile hermeneutic of suspicion" found in some interpreters, especially, apparently, those who investigate Paul's rhetoric (he names no names). Whether or not Dunn's structure is always aligned with that of Romans, it does suggest that of a theological handbook. First the author describes Paul's God, a God who is consistently Jewish. "Paul's conversion had not changed his belief in and about God" (p. 29). Then comes the human as created and finite, followed by the human in sin. At this point Christ enters the scheme: the historical person, the crucified (perhaps for Dunn the key concept), the resurrected, the preexistent, the eschatological. In the section on "the crucified" it is interesting to see that Dunn lumps together Paul's statements about sacrifice, redemption, reconciliation, and christus victor, but not grace and justification. After the event of Christ salvation can begin (in this chapter comes grace as event, justification by faith, participation in Christ, spirit, and baptism). But this has to be followed by the process of salvation, which includes treatment of Romans 9-11. The final chapters deal with the church and ethics. I detail his structure because an author's perspective is so clearly revealed in it. For example, how different the outcome might have been if the topics of grace and justification were part of the discussion about God or Christ! Who is the Paul that emerges from this book? First of all, he remains a Jew in heart and mind. What has been added to his Judaism, of course, is the belief that Jesus is God's chosen one, the center of whose activity is the saving activity in the cross. What is changed in his Judaism is liberation from the narrow pride of a community which saw itself as singly called by God. …