Paul Today: Challenging Readings of Acts and the Epistles(Essential Inquiries)

Paul Today discusses and challenges popular interpretations of familiar Pauline texts in view of important controversies and debates. Who was Paul? What do we know about his relationship to Jesus? What was the role of the city of Ephesus? Can Paul's attitudes towards marriage and slavery be redeemed? And what of Paul's attitude to women and their ministry, and to homosexuality? Do we appropriately attribute to Paul ideas about justification and faith? Or is there more to know than meets the eye? Throughout, Need debates and reframes familiar interpretations of Paul through challenge and critique informed by both scholarship and pastoral experience. These essays make constructive, critical approaches to Paul available to a wider circle of interested readers.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 A Portrait of Paul - Painting a Picture of the Apostle to the Gentiles Chapter 3 Paul and Jesus - A New Testament Conundrum Chapter 4 Paul and Ephesus - Texts, History, and Archaeology Chapter 5 Contextualizing Paul - Marriage and Slavery in 1 Corinthians Chapter 6 Discerning the Body - Food, Conscience, and the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians Chapter 7 Paul and Women - Setting the Record Straight Chapter 8 Paul and Homosexuality - What's the Problem? Chapter 9 A Revolution in Pauline Studies - Considering the "New Look" on Paul Chapter 10 Paul and Christ - Christology, Ethics, and Ecclesiology Chapter 11 The Fall and Original Sin - The Real Meaning of Romans 5:12-21 Chapter 12 Justification by Faith? - Paul's Theology of Righteousness Chapter 13 Epilogue Chapter 14 Bibliography

About the Author :
Stephen W. Need is dean of St. George's College in Jerusalem, Israel.

Review :
Well-informed overviews of important texts and critical issues initiate the reader painlessly into the complexities of interpreting the Pauline letters. There is a freshness and clarity to Paul Today that both encourages and inspires the reader to grapple with thorny aspects of Pauline thought. Stephen Need is a gifted theologian-teacher-scholar and writes with great pastoral insight, guiding us sensitively through polemical issues and highlighting layers of historical confusion. Paul the pastor emerges, 'a thundering type of personality' who never left Judaism at all, but received a radical reorientation within it, so that Christ and not the Law became the source of justification. Whether he is discussing women, homosexuality or original sin, Stephen Need steers us gracefully through the misguiding lenses of later theological controversies to rediscover the authentic pastoral concerns of Paul himself. This is a book to be greatly welcomed and cherished by students and pastors who struggle, like Paul, to deepen faith in all its contextual complexities. Those who have a negative image of Paul's teaching, or who associate him with such doctrines as 'original sin' and 'justification by faith', will find this book enlightening. Focusing on some notoriously difficult passages, Stephen Need distils recent scholarly work on Paul and shows how many common beliefs about his theology are gross misinterpretations of his thought. Paul Today will help many who have previously dismissed Paul as a bigot and a bore to study his letters with renewed interest and respect. Need writes at an introductory level providing an overview of the issues for the student, the busy pastor, and the informed layman. He identifies the issues, shows why they are important and summarizes the various ways scholars have addressed the matter. The author's style is precise with an introduction of each issue, a clear statement of how he will approach the issue, his exploration of the subject and then a concise summary. . . . Need's studies could be useful to individuals seeking to understand the contours of contemporary New Testament scholarship.