N. T. Wright, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005)

Looking for an easy way into the theology of the apostle Paul's letters? Then this book might be just the letter-opener you need. Based on a series of lectures given at Cambridge University, Wright, a British New Testament scholar and the current Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, sets out to express his own understanding of the key themes and structures of Paul's theology. Wright draws from his own previous work on Paul and assumes some familiarity with academic biblical scholarship, so this is not quite a beginner's introduction to Paul's thought or to the letters themselves. Still, Wright usually keeps other scholarly voices in the background and engages Paul's letters directly. Wright, however, aids the non-specialist by presenting his reflections in a relaxed and straightforward style that makes even some of the more difficult parts of Paul's thinking both accessible and understandable.

Wright divides the book into two main parts that reflect, respectively, on the "themes" and "structures" of Paul's thought. Themes covered in separate chapters include "Paul's World," with a few pages dedicated to the history of scholarship on Paul; "Creation and Covenant," with a few pages grounding these themes in the Old Testament; "Messiah and Apocalyptic," in which Wright observes that for Paul, "messiah" is not simply a proper name or title, but a royal designation which was familiar from broader currents of messianic expectation contemporary with Paul; and "Gospel and Empire," a somewhat surprising theme about which I will say more momentarily. After identifying these central themes of Paul's thought, Wright turns to the larger map, the structure of Paul's theology. Jesus and the Spirit represent the chief coordinates of Paul's theology and Wright argues that by reorienting the ideas of monotheism, election, and eschatology around Jesus and the Spirit, Paul essentially redrew the map of the main structures of Israel's theology. Wright unfolds this new map in individual chapters dedicated to Israel's God, the people of God, and God's future, and he concludes the book with a short chapter on the relationship between Paul and Jesus and Paul and the church today.

Despite the seemingly abstract discussion of themes and structures, Wright grounds all of his observations in select passages from Paul's letters, though he usually engages each text only briefly. (Wright helpfully directs the reader to the more expansive details of his other scholarly work, but I found the repetition of the gesture to be as distracting as the numerous acknowledgments that "more could be said" on a given topic). Wright's overall presentation owes its coherence, however, mostly to the narrative dynamics that he believes animate Paul's thinking. Paul, he argues, understands the story of Jesus, and the story of his own apostleship, to be the continuation and climax of the larger story of Israel's relationship with God. So with this book, Wright successfully highlights and follows the key themes and structures of this larger story, as Paul has threaded it through his letters.

How exactly, though, does Wright put Paul "in fresh perspective"? Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the book is the way Wright uses a narrative approach to bring together elements of the apostle's thinking that otherwise tend to be kept apart. Understanding Paul's theology as a part of the larger story of Israel and God may not seem like a fresh idea to some (although readers who are familiar with the history of Pauline scholarship will note the shift in thinking this idea represents). Yet, this move enables Wright to point out connections between different concepts in Paul's thought, like covenantal theology and apocalyptic mythology for example, while many other scholars see in these pairings only contrast and conflict.

Perhaps the most interesting set of concepts in Paul's theology that Wright seeks to reconnect is the presumed separation of religion and politics so common to modern Western thought and social life. Given Paul's explicit comments in Romans, where he instructs everyone to "be subject to the governing authorities" because he believes these authorities have been "instituted by God" (Romans 13:1), any discussion of politics and theology in Paul's thought might seem to have little left to say. By drawing together Paul's themes of creation and covenant, messiah and apocalyptic, however, Wright suggests that Paul himself said more about God and governments than most people realize. Wright not only shows how the modern distinction between religion and politics fails to describe the ancient world that Paul engaged; he also provocatively argues that "for Paul, Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not" (69). I was (pleasantly) surprised by this forceful interpretation of Paul's theology. One might question Wright about just how subversive Paul's "counter-imperial theology" really is, but what his narrative approach brings to this topic impressed me.

So, why read this book? For one thing, it offers a handy tool for smoothly cutting through the envelope of theological cliches into which some scholars and pastors like to stuff Paul's letters. Many of these cliches reduce Paul's theology to the formula "salvation = grace + faith" and thus seal up the power of the story the apostle tells and that Wright aims to retell. Is Wright, then, someone who increases interpretive innovations so that revisions of Paul's theology may abound? By no means! Wright may be counted as a loyal interpreter of the apostle to the Gentiles, a scholar for whom there is "no more stimulating exercise for the mind, the heart, the imagination, and the spirit, than trying to think Paul's thoughts after him" (x). (Some readers, noticing the sharp rise of their critical eyebrows while reading this book might, in fact, find Wright loyal to a fault.) Still, Wright's approach and some of his conclusions are intentionally less traditional than others and our understanding of Paul may very well be the better for them.

Reviewer: Eric Thurman