{"id":243,"date":"2005-08-05T07:26:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-05T07:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2005\/08\/top-ten-books-apostle-paul.html"},"modified":"2005-08-05T07:26:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-05T07:26:00","slug":"top-ten-books-apostle-paul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/08\/top-ten-books-apostle-paul.html","title":{"rendered":"Top Ten Books: Apostle Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In this series of blogs on Top Ten Books, I want to cover a variety of topics. Today’s is on Paul and sometime this weekend I want to post one on the Top Ten Books in Biblical Studies (overall).<\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul is no longer who he once was — at least that is what has happened to our images and understandings of him since the late 70s. Again, I’ve tried to focus here on what I think are the best and readable books. (In this one, the “readable” part is what is difficult.)<\/p>\n

1. W.D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism<\/span>: widely neglected today, this book recovered the Jewishness of Paul.
2. E.P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism<\/span>: student of Davies whose book is the most influential NT book of the 20th Century.
3. J.D.G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle<\/span>: the official “New Perspective” book.
4. N.T. Wright, The Climax of the Covenant<\/span> and What Saint Paul Really Said<\/span>
5. H.R. Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology<\/span>: hard to read, traditional view of Paul.
6. A. Segal, Paul the Convert<\/span>
7. J. Christiaan Beker, Paul the Apostle<\/span>
8. D. Boyarin, A Radical Jew<\/span>
9. S. Westerholm, Israel’s Law and the Church’s Faith<\/span>
10. D. Wenham, Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity?<\/span><\/p>\n

There are so many more, including J. Becker, Wayne Meeks, A. Schweitzer, K. Stendahl, R. Riesner, R. Knox, and Peter O’Brien.<\/p>\n

One comment: this list favors the New Perspective<\/a> because this view has the most innovative books. The older, more Reformed view of Paul’s theology simply hasn’t found a major proponent in book-length form of late. There has been lots of sniping going on about the New Perspective in the journals and in conferences, but a restatement of the pre-New Perspective of Paul isn’t on the shelves right now (unless you count Ridderbos, which was published when I was in college). The link I have to the New Perspective is to Michael Bird’s fine page: all kinds of bibliography and debate to be found there. In particular, you might want to look at the piece by F. Watson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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