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| Home > Theology > From Kevin Bywater's Blog - By Living Waters |
| From Kevin Bywater's Blog - By Living Waters | | Date Created: Oct 03, 2005, 04:18 PM |
 In many recent discussions of the "new perspective on Paul" (NPP), we are recommended to read one or more of a handful of critiques of the "new perspectivists."* Since the NPP is as much a reading of Paul (and the rest of the New Testament) as it is a reading of the literature of Second Temple Judaism, it is not surprising to see recommended the cumbersomely-entitled, though excellent, collection, Justification and Variegated Nomism, Volume 1: The Complexities of Second Temple Judaism, edited by D.A. Carson, Peter T. O'Brien and Mark A. Seifrid (WUNT 2/140; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck/Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001).
But that's not what interests me.
What I find interesting is how some rather vocal anti-"new perspectivists" suggest that one acquire the volume (either by purchase or through a library), but then quickly note that the volume likely will be too difficult read. No worries, though, since one should simply turn to the final chapter by Donald Carson and thus access the essential thrust of the volume.
What is so interesting about this advice is that Carson's closing summary chapter is a tendentious casting of the overall thrust of the contributions. Indeed, it so discolors the actual import of most of the other authors that a reader unaware of the contributions themselves likely would not gain an adequate feel for the tenor of the contributions that comprise this fine volume (not that all contributions are of the same quality, mind you). In fact, Carson's concluding summary so mischaracterizes the actual content of the volume that reviewers time and again have noted the same.
Kevin then provides 8 examples of scholary reviews that have the same beef with Carson. |
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