Euangelion
Over at Anvil, Chris Tilling reviews Paul and the Faithfulness of God, see here.
He concludes:
Only a few scholars have ever had Wright’s learning or brilliance, something most of us cannot pretend to imitate. At the very least he models an energy and determination to find Paul that the wider scholarly community should attempt to replicate. Plus, his “thick description” is a step in the right direction, towards concern for Paul’s full historical locatedness. Finally, Wright is very transparent about the nature of his approach, the models he uses and the scope of questions he seeks to address. He paves a way forward, showing a path which would seek to resist presenting a lopsided Paul driven by undisclosed interpretative agendas. I would urge that Paul’s texts be kept centre stage, allowed full right of reply to all over-arching stories and reading paradigms, in as much as that is possible, of course. Arguably, this calls for a relational (and therefore revelational) approach, which operates with a christologically weighted oscillation between Paul’s text and framing matters (including that of “backstory” / “backstories”). Hence, and most of all, it will require attendance to Christ, the “vital key” (826). As also for Wright, precisely when Paul speaks of Jesus the Messiah, right there we see that the “events of Jesus’s death and resurrection compelled Paul” and “caused him to read old texts in new ways” (827). And not only texts, but also all relationships and indeed everything else is seen quite differently in the light of Christ (2 Cor. 5:16-17, Phil. 3:8). Wright’s monumental PFG, though not without its problems, has lead us a good way down this path.
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