Israel’s Law and the Church’s Faith: Paul and His Recent Interpreters

by Stephen Westerholm

Unless you’re particularly interested in “Pauline studies” or the debate among theologians about the “new perspective” on Paul, you would do just as well to skip this book.

Westerholm attempts to come to a conclusion about what Paul meant by various things in his writing by analyzing a variety of approaches that have been taken to Paul’s “theology.” Each chapter in the beginning of the book approaches a particular subject in Pauline studies by summarizing the history of writings on that subject. Once he has laid out all the background, he seeks to offer his own interpretation of Paul’s theology. Ultimately, Westerholm follows the traditional (“Lutheran”) approach to Paul.

Like I said, unless any of that particularly interests you, you’ll do just as well to skip this one. And if it does strike you as interesting, you’d probably do better to pick up the updated and expanded version: Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The “Lutheran” Paul and His Critics.

The Editors do not advocate everything taught by the authors of the books we review. Like us, these authors are fallible humans and those who choose to read these books should measure them by the bible, the one true standard.