As many have noted, the new journal called Early Christianity (Mohr Siebeck) is offering its launch issue for free. In a market of academic resources that is overcrowded, it is difficult to justify a new journal. However, given the international cooperative effort of this work (esp. English-speaking and German-speaking scholars) and its attempt to study early Christianity as both involving the NT and the post-NT developments, I think it will be very productive and significant.
I was eagerly looking forward to Francis Watson’s review of Campbell’s Deliverance of God, but it was not nearly as analytical as it was simply descriptive. A couple of comments he makes, though, are interesting:
This is a highly unusual book which is likely to prove influential even among those who remain unpersuaded by some, most, or all of its arguments. (p. 185)
…the [synthetical re-construction of Campbell’s view of Justification] theory itself operates with sovereign disregard for the actual views of other Pauline interpreters, who find themselves transplanted onto a terrain whose contours and features have been determined by Campbell himself. This may be at least as disconcerting for those he enlists as his allies as for those he regards as his opponents (whom, it should be said, he treats with courtesy throughout). (p. 185).
All of the essays in this first issue are excellent – particulary John Barclay’s which he shared with me when it was in the version of a conference paper. Durham student Jono Linebaugh’s essay is also impressive and getting into this journal, in the inaugural volume nonetheless, will be a nice feather in his cap when he turns to the job market – well done, Jono!
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