Description: In this first major analysis of Paul's understanding of Gentile salvation in several years, Terence Donaldson offers a creative approach to the major themes of the apostle's theological convictions; God, sin, the Torah, Christ, Israel, his own call, and others. According to Donaldson, Paul as a believer in Jesus Christ did not abandon his Jewish frame of reference but reconfigured it, especially by the stimulus of his mission to the Gentiles.
Customer Reviews
Review Summary: Required Pauline Reading and Highly Recommended!
Date: 1998-12-03
Details: Donaldson sets out on an ambitious enterprise: to reexamine Paul's conception of the role Gentiles should be given and what their relationship to Judaism should be. Drawing upon an impressive range of scholarly work from Luther to Schweitzer to Bultmann to the history of religions school to E.P. Sanders, the author offers a way beyond the traditional scholarly renderings of Paul's mission and core convictions. The traditional way placed judicial language of faith and works as central; it saw Paul's Damascus experience as a turning away from Judaism to the Gentiles; it understood "Israel" in Romans 11 as nonethnic and universal. Donaldson calls into question all the old assumptions and, to put it crudely, puts the Jew back into Paul. This is an outstanding book and I believe will be referred to as the standard for understanding Paul's relationship to the Gentile world for many years. I highly recommend it. Thomas Jay Oord
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