God and the Faithfulness of Paul: A Critical Examination of the Pauline Theology of N.T. Wright

Coming out either late 2015 or early 2016 is this beast of a book:

Michael F. Bird, Christoph Heilig, J. Thomas Hewitt (eds.)
God and the Faithfulness of Paul: A Critical Examination of the Pauline Theology of N.T. Wright
WUNT 2; Tuebingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2015.
Pre-order at Mohr Siebeck.

N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God is the culmination of his long, influential, and often controversial career – a landmark study of the history and thought of the Apostle Paul, which attempts to make fresh suggestions in a variety of sub-fields of New Testament studies. This volume brings together a group of international scholars to critically weigh and assess an array of issues in Wright’s work, including methodology, first-century contextual factors, exegetical findings, and theological implications. In so doing, the volume’s contributors bring these facets of Paul and the Faithfulness of God into dialogue with the current state of scholarship in both Anglophone and German contexts. It thus offers both a critical evaluation of Wright’s accomplishment as well as an excellent overview of and introduction to issues that are hotly debated within contemporary Pauline studies.

In the introduction, I write:

As the subsequent essays make clear, this volume is neither a Festschriftnor a refutation, but something entirely different. It is perhaps best described as a conversation among those involved in biblical and theological scholarship as to the positive achievements, potential failings, matters requiring clarification, and future questions that Wright’s PFG elicits for his scholarly peers. We hope this book proves to be a definitive moment in the reception of PFG and also a key moment in setting the agenda and questions for Pauline scholarship in the twenty-first century that Wright’s volume has – for better or worse – bequeathed to us.

Part I: Prologue

Michael F. Bird/Christoph Heilig/J. Thomas Hewitt: Introduction
Benjamin Schliesser: Paul and the Faithfulness of God among Pauline Theologies

Part II: Methodological Issues
Oda Wischmeyer: N. T. Wright’s Biblical Hermeneutics Considered from A German Exegetical Perspective
Andreas Losch: Wright’s Version of Critical Realism
Theresa Heilig/Christoph Heilig: Historical Methodology
Eve-Marie Becker: Wright’s Paul and the Paul of Acts. A Critique of Pauline Exegesis – Inspired by Lukan Studies
Steve Moyise: Wright’s Understanding of Paul’s Use of Scripture
Joel R. White: N. T. Wright’s Narrative Approach

Part III: Contextual Issues
James H. Charlesworth: Wright’s Paradigm of Early Jewish Thought. Avoidance of Anachronisms?
Gregory E. Sterling: Wisdom or Foolishness? The Role of Philosophy in the Thought of Paul
Seyoon Kim: Paul and the Roman Empire
James Hanges: “A World of Shrines and Groves.” N. T. Wright and Paul among the Gods

Part IV: Exegetical Issues
Gregory Tatum: Law and Covenant in Paul and the Faithfulness of God
Sigurd Grindheim: Election and the Role of Israel
Jörg Frey: Demythologizing Apocalyptic? On N. T. Wright’s Paul, Apocalyptic Interpretation, and the Constraints of Construction
Aquila H. I. Lee: Messianism and Messiah in Paul. Christ as Jesus? – James D. G. Dunn: An Insider’s Perspective on Wright’s Version of the New Perspective on Paul
Peter Stuhlmacher: N. T. Wright’s Understanding of Justification and Redemption – Torsten Jantsch: God and His Faithfulness in Paul. Aspects of the History of Research in Light of the Letter to the Romans
J. Thomas Hewitt/Matthew V. Novenson: Participationism and Messiah Christology in Paul
Larry W. Hurtado: YHWH’s Return to Zion. A New Catalyst for Earliest High Christology?
John R. (Jack) Levison: The Spirit in Its Second Temple Context. An Exegetical Analysis of the Pneumatology of N. T. Wright
Richard H. Bell: Individual Eschatology
Volker Rabens: The Faithfulness of God and its Effects on Faithful Living. A Critical Analysis of Tom Wright’s Faithfulness to Paul

Part V: Implications
James Crossley/Katie Edwards: Paul and the Faithfulness of God as Postmodern Scholarship
Edith M. Humphrey: Bishop Wright. Sacramentality and the Role of Sacraments
Frank D. Macchia: The Spirit and God’s Return to Indwell a People. A Systematic Theologian’s Response to N. T. Wright’s Reading of Paul’s Pneumatology
Andrew McGowan: Ecclesiology as Ethnology. The Church in N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God
Eckhard J. Schnabel: Evangelism and the Mission of the Church
Sven Ensminger: Barth, Wright, and Theology

Big thanks to Christoph Heilig and J. Thomas Hewitt who did the majority of the work in bringing this baby to fruition.