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Volume 33 Issue 1 - May 2008

An International Journal for Pastors and Students of Theological and Religious Studies



Table of Contents [+] Expand


Book Reviews[+] Expand

Old Testament
Sidnie White Crawford and Leonard J. Greenspoon.
The Book of Esther in Modern Research.
Reviewed by Robin Gallaher Branch
Eryl W. Davies.
The Dissenting Reader: Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible.
Reviewed by Robin Gallaher Branch
John Day, ed.
In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel.
Reviewed by Bálint Károly Zabán
Katharine J. Dell.
The Book of Proverbs in Social and Theological Context.
Reviewed by Jennie Barbour
William G. Dever.
Did God Have a Wife?
Reviewed by William D. Barker
New Testament
Octavian D. Baban.
On the Road Encounters in Luke-Acts.
Reviewed by Jamie Read
Richard Bauckham.
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.
Reviewed by David Wenham
Andrew E. Bernhard.
Other Early Christian Gospels.
Reviewed by Simon Gathercole
William S. Campbell.
Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity.
Reviewed by James C. Miller
David L. Dungan.
Constantine's Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament.
Reviewed by Preston M. Sprinkle
Margaret Hannan.
The Nature and Demands of the Sovereign Rule of God in the Gospel of Matthew.
Reviewed by Phillip J. Long
Carl R. Holladay.
A Critical Introduction to the New Testament.
Reviewed by Lee S. Bond
 
Larry W. Hurtado.
The Earliest Christian Artifacts.
Reviewed by Rohintan Mody
Bruce J. Malina and John J. Pilch.
Social-Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul.
Reviewed by Nijay K. Gupta
Mark Reasoner.
Romans in Full Circle: A History of Interpretation.
Louisville: Reviewed by Michael Bird
Sorin Sabou.
Between Horror and Hope: Paul's Metaphorical Language of "Death" in Romans 6:1-11.
Reviewed by Nijay K. Gupta
Chris VanLandingham.
Judgment and Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul.
Reviewed by Timothy Gombis
Tommy Wasserman.
The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission.
Reviewed by P. J. Williams 89

History and Historical Theology
Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, eds.
The Cambridge History of Christianity: World Christianities, c. 1815-c.1914.
Reviewed by John Coffey
Collin Hansen.
Young, Restless, Reformed.
Reviewed by Andrew David Naselli 91
Douglas A. Sweeney and Allen C. Guelzo, eds.
The New England Theology: From Jonathan Edwards to Edwards Amasa Park.
Reviewed by Oliver D. Crisp
Systematic Theology and Bioethics
Petrus J. Gräbe.
New Covenant, New Community.
Reviewed by A. T. B. McGowan
Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, eds.
Overcoming Sin and Temptation.
Reviewed by Graham Beynon
James K. A. Smith.
Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?
Reviewed by Tim Chester
Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
The Drama of Doctrine.
Reviewed by Robbie Fox Castleman
Ethics and Pastoralia
Gilbert Meilaender and William Werpehowski, eds.
The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics.
Reviewed by Brian Brock
H. P. Owen.
The Basis of Christian Prayer.
Reviewed by Stephen Dray
Milton Vincent.
A Gospel Primer for Christians.
Reviewed by Andrew David Naselli


Judgment and Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2006. xvi + 384 pp. $29.95.

Chris VanLandingham.

Timothy Gombis
Cedarville University
Cedarville, Ohio, USA

The debate over the so-called "new perspective on Paul"has divided up along fairly predictable lines. Th ere are those who are attempting to preserve the emphases in a more "traditional"reading of Paul—that Paul was critiquing the anthropological optimism inherent in the soteriology of Early Judaism. On the "other side,"we can place those who are stressing that much of what Paul is critiquing is the ethnic exclusivism of his Jewish Christian contemporaries. Many on this side of the discussion have claimed that the structure of Paul's soteriology is very similar to that of his Jewish heritage, however broadly conceived. When "traditional"readers of Paul hear this, it begins to sound as if there is little in Paul's gospel that stands over against Judaism or the Law, leading them to wonder why Paul made such a fuss (as he appears to do in Galatians and Romans) and how the gospel of Christ is indeed far different from the Law. Many evangelical scholars who are sympathetic to "new perspective"impulses realize that questioning the traditional Protestant reading of Paul leaves them open to the charge of de-emphasizing justification by faith and placing slightly more stress on the other side of that tension in Pauline theology—that of a future judgment according to works. "New perspective"advocates have worked hard to maintain a proper balance here, though there is certainly more work to be done to articulate this properly.

With this setting in mind, Chris VanLandingham advances the very bold thesis, in direct opposition to E. P. Sanders, that in Early Judaism the criterion for a favorable verdict at the final judgment is obedience to God's commands. Whereas Sanders claimed that God's election of Israel was foundational and prior to Israel's keeping the Law, VanLandingham discerns an emphasis on Abraham's obedience throughout the Jewish literature that has been sorely neglected by Jewish scholars. He then turns to Paul's letters to note that the structure of Paul's thought is much the same. The criterion for ultimate salvation of the individual before God is that of one's deeds. VanLandingham seeks to separate himself from the majority of Pauline scholars at this point, too, in arguing that this obedience is not necessarily one that is empowered by God. God's empowering grace does not come into view, so that those who claim that, in a sense, God's future judgment has reference to the deeds God has produced in believers, is simply false.

In the end, VanLandingham will likely not find many who are in enthusiastic agreement with him. He has staked out some unique ground, some might say "extreme."But he will have certainly provided some fresh fodder for a discussion that has bogged down, to some extent, over the last five or ten years.