Sublime

Paul is firm even if some modern commentators are not: we will be judged, at least in part, for eternal life on the basis of our works.

This will be a theme of my book: modern theologies of the New Testament were failures from a Christian point of view precisely because what they ended up offering was bad history, bad theology, or both.

OUTLINE I. Introduction

The New Perspective on Paul refers to an attempt by scholars to interpret Paul’s letters in general, and his idea of justification in particular, from the first-century context of the assimilation of Jews and Gentiles into the new covenant, rather than the understanding of Pauline justification that arose out of the Reformation and has dominated

The second explains the controversies, though not the crucifixion, at the expense of most of the evidence about first-century Jews. At the historical level, nobody doubts that Jesus was crucified, but a good many doubt that he entered into controversy with the Pharisees in particular. How are we to proceed?

I am merely attempting to explain why and how I continue to find traditional Christian doctrines and confessions “true,” why I’m willing to confess the creeds, even though I am a critical scholar who knows much of the Bible is not “true” when taken as history or science. This is not an apology but an attempt at explanation and illustration.