Paul & the Law: A Contextual Approach

Paul & the Law: A Contextual Approach by Thielman, Frank. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780830818549.

No issue in contemporary Pauline studies is more contested than Pauls view of the law. Headline proponents of the "new perspective" on Paul, such as E.P. Sanders and J.D.G. Dunn, have maintained that the Reformational readings of Paul have led todistorted understandings of first-century Judaism, of Paul and particularly of Pauls diagnosis of the Jewish situation under the law. Others have responded by arguing that while our understanding of Paul needs to be tuned to the clearer sounds nowemanating from Jewish texts of the apostles day, the basic Reformational insight into Pauls analysis of the human plight remains true to the apostle. Paul was opposing works righteousness.Paul and The Law is a careful attempt to assault this crucial interpretive problem with a new strategy. Rather than taking a systematic, topical approach, Frank Thielman examines Pauls view of the law in context: the context of each letters language and argument. While many studies have focused onPauls explicit statements about the law, Thielman goes further in investigating those contexts where Pauls language is allusive and his view implied.The result is an illuminating and significant contribution to Pauline studies. Paul and the Law clarifies our understanding of Pauls perspective on the law in the light of his gospel of Jesus Christ, and it reaffirms the coherence and integrity of Pauline theology as it relates to this pivotal axis of his thought.