Susan Eastman Reviews John Barclay on Paul and the Gift

Over at the Marginalia Review of Books is a review by Susan Eastman titled Grace and Transformation about John Barclay’s volume Paul and the Gift. Eastman raises some good questions about Barclay’s articulation of divine and human agency. For instance, does the efficacy of grace cancel the need for a human response or work immanently to evoke and sustain the human response, and how does one balance judgment as whether one is a fitting object of divine grace match with a sense of assurance in divine grace?

She writes:

Paul and the Gift is a stunning invitation to consider deeply, broadly and creatively the tremendous power of grace as divine gift, and its implications for every aspect of human life, from intimate family relationships to global politics. It certainly will change the work of Pauline scholars, but it deserves a wider readership as well. Anyone interested in Jewish as well as Christian theologies of grace and in the dynamics of human transformation, will benefit from the riches of this book.

I have to confess that I’m curious to see what the “Paul within Judaism” crowd will have to say about this.