Course Description
In the past, some of the principal differences between Protestant and Catholic theologies have resulted from and produced widely diverging interpretations of key Pauline texts. This course explains key moments in the confessional debates in their relation to different interpretations of Pauline theology, in particular concerning sin, justification, grace, salvation, the relation between divine and human action, divine sovereignty and human freedom. While the 20th century has seen a rapprochement in the theological and exegetical answers given to the confessionally dividing questions of the 16th century, this course further examines whether a more historically nuanced interpretation of Paul’s theological message in its first-century context might not discern different questions being posed, not least on what it means for the church to seek unity and holiness. Thus, reading Paul in the 21st century might contribute in fresh ways to a theological renewal and towards the kind of unity to which Paul exhorted his first hearers.
Bibliography
McGRATH, ALISTER E. 2020. Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification. Fourth edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McKNIGHT, SCOT, and B. J. OROPEZA, eds. 2020. Perspectives on Paul: Five Views. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
WRIGHT, N.T. 2013. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
WRIGHT, N.T. 2015. Paul and His Recent Interpreters: Some Contemporary Debates. London: SPCK.
BARCLAY, John M. G. 2015. Paul and the Gift. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.