“For me, Paul has always been the most difficult and therefore also most delightful advocate and interpreter of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the human experience of God’s transforming powe
“For me, Paul has always been the most difficult and therefore also most delightful advocate and interpreter of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the human experience of God’s transforming power through Christ. In Paul’s letters above all I have found the quality of mind and the depth of conviction that could arouse in me both excitement and passion. And it is Paul’s letters, above all, that show how important and difficult is life together in the church.”
— from the preface
With the contextual framework in place from volume one of The Canonical Paul, Luke Timothy Johnson now probes each of the thirteen biblical letters traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul in a way that balances respect for historical integrity with attention to present-day realities. In doing so, Johnson reforges the connection between biblical studies and the life of the church, seeking to establish once again the foundational and generative role that the thirteen letters of Paul have had among Christians for centuries.
Far from being a “definitive theology” of Paul, or an oversimplified synthesis, Interpreting Paul provides glimpses into various moments of Paul’s thinking and teaching that we find in Scripture, modeling how one might read his letters closely for fresh, creative interpretations now and into the future. Approached in this way, both in minute detail and as a whole canon, Paul’s letters yield rich insights, and his voice becomes accessible to all readers of the Bible.
“All great scholars have a clear and distinctive view about the people, texts, and topics about which they write. This is indisputably true for Luke Timothy Johnson, who rightly insists on the importance of religious experience in understanding who Paul was, what he cared about most deeply, and how that reverberates throughout all of his letters. Few will agree with all that Johnson says here, but all will learn from him and his insights into the life, letters, and legacy of Paul.”
— John T. Fitzgerald
University of Notre Dame
“Interpreting Paul usefully brings together all the major essays (some reprints, some new) Luke Timothy Johnson has written on Paul. The thoughtful and often delightfully independent take on current issues in Paul for which Johnson is known is fully on display in these essays. While not a ‘Pauline theology’ in the usual sense of that phrase, the volume provides a breathtakingly broad scope of comment on many of the key issues in the apostle’s theology.”
— Douglas J. Moo
Wheaton College
View Review quote
Luke Timothy Johnson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He won the 2011 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity. Johnson's many other books include The Revelatory Body; Brother of Jesus, Friend of God; and The Writings of the New Testament.
View Biographical note
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Romans 3:21–26 and the Faith of Jesus
2. The Social Dimensions of Sōtēria in Luke-Acts and Paul
3. Transformation of Mind and Moral Discernment in Romans
4. Life-Giving Spirit
5. The Body in Question
6. Glossolalia and the Embarrassments of Experience
7. God Was in Christ
8. Truth and Reconciliation in 2 Corinthians
9. Ritual Imprinting and the Politics of Perfection
10. The Truth of Christian Experience
11. The Expression of Christian Experience
12. Paul’s Vision of the Church
13. The Rise of Church Order
14. Fellowship of Suffering
15. Mystery and Metaphor in Colossians
16. Doing the Truth in Love
17. Sacrament of the World
18. Discernment, Edification, and Holiness
19. The Apostle as Crisis Manager
20. Oikonomia Theou
21. The Shape of the Struggle
22. Second Timothy and the Polemic against False Teachers
23. The Pedagogy of Grace
Conclusion
View Table of contents
