N.T. Wright’s Paul — the Short Version

N.T. Wright’s Paul — the Short Version July 29, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-07-25 at 12.59.11 PMI don’t care how good it is, for many (if not most) pastors I know, N.T. Wright’s mammoth Paul and the Faithfulness of God is still too long. The same is true for many of my professor friends who don’t teach Paul. With the final volume in the set coming out this fall, Paul and His Recent Interpreters, we have four volumes: two for PFG, one collection of essays (Pauline Perspectives), and now one on the recent history of interpretation. Pastors say to me, “I have a life other than reading.”

More than one pastor has said to me, I wish I could have the whole summer off just to read PFG. I believe it would be a ministry-shaping experience, but alas few have that kind of privilege.

This comment about length is not a criticism of Tom’s books. I’m a professor and I’ve got the time for such hefty tomes, and beside that I need to read them for my own work, and besides I like to read his jaunts. No, this is not a criticism but a reality check. Paul books are getting increasingly longer or at least long. This Fall several more are coming out and they are mostly big books.

Is there a way to access PFG without reading the whole? Yes, and here it is:

Through the Eyes of N.T. Wright: A Reader’s Guide to Paul and the Faithfulness of Godby Derek Vreeland.

I recommend it warmly with these two warnings:

First, Tom is not easy to summarize for he spins a narratology that is required to grip in order to understand any and every paragraph in PFG. I have tried summarizing Tom at times, even in Tom’s presence, and find that he pushes back by saying, “Yes, but this and that and this too need to be put into play.” So, Derek’s work will always be an approximate summary.

Second, I only recommend Derek’s book if you purchase PFG and read it, or the appropriate sections, alongside the summary. As I said in my blurb of this Reader’s Guide — I recommend it because I recommend Tom’s work.

Wright believes there’s a narrative, a story, alive and well in the Jewish world and that both Jesus and Paul stepped into that story at different places and swallowed it up both in fulfillment and sent it forward in new directions. In particular, through Christ and the Spirit, monotheism, election and eschatology — these are Tom’s three big themes and they are sometimes totally ignored by summarizers! — were reshaped by way of fulfillment and newness.


Browse Our Archives