Through a friend I came across Paula Fredriksen\u2019s review of N.T. Wright\u2019s\u00a0Paul and the Faithfulness of God<\/em>, which includes this rather damning indictment of his work:<\/p>\n [Wright\u2019s] interpretive context is\u00a0generated not by a critical sifting of primary evidence but by the requirements of his\u00a0master narrative\u2019s plot: how Paul invented a triumphalist, eschatologically realized\u00a0Christian theology. In this regard, Paul and the Faithfulness of God<\/em> represents a return\u00a0to the good old days, pre-1977 (Sanders\u2019 Paul and Palestinian Judaism), pre-1963\u00a0(Stendahl\u2019s \u201cPaul and the Introspective Conscience of the West\u201d), indeed, pre-1906\u00a0(Schweitzer\u2019s Quest of the Historical Jesus, with its robust reconstruction of Jewish\u00a0apocalyptic hopes). Wright\u2019s book is historically important, therefore, for the light that it\u00a0sheds not on Paul, but on the last century of Pauline studies. We have not, after all,\u00a0undergone a paradigm shift. We stand transfixed between two paradigms: Paul the\u00a0Christian theologian and Paul the apocalyptic visionary. Our next step forward still\u00a0remains to be taken.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ouch! I\u2019ll take that as a negative response.<\/p>\n FYI, I\u2019m not sure where the review is published.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Through a friend I came across Paula Fredriksen\u2019s review of N.T. Wright\u2019s\u00a0Paul and the Faithfulness of God, which includes this rather damning indictment of his work: [Wright\u2019s] interpretive context is\u00a0generated not by a critical sifting of primary evidence but by the requirements of his\u00a0master narrative\u2019s plot: how Paul invented a triumphalist, eschatologically realized\u00a0Christian theology. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n