The Church's Guide for Reading Paul

by Childs, Brevard S.

• ISBN13: 9780802862785
• ISBN10: 0802862780
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-16
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

"The Church's Guide for Reading Paul is the final work of a prolific and beloved biblical scholar. Brevard Childs here turns his sharp scholarly eye to the works of the apostle Paul and makes an unusual argument: the New Testament canon's formation was, above all, a hermeneutical exercise in which its anonymous apostles and postapostolic editors collected, preserved, and theologically shaped the material in order for the evangelical traditions to serve successive generations of Christians."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

The Search for Paul's Theology	p. 1
Recent Historical Attempts	p. 1
The Pauline Corpus	p. 3
The Hermeneutical Problem of Interpreting the Corpus	p. 7
Historical Criticism and Canonical Context	p. 10
Elements of Continuity	p. 13
Elements of Discontinuity	p. 15
The Role of a Text's Background	p. 17
Criteria for Canonicity	p. 19
Apostolicity	p. 21
Catholicity	p. 22
Orthodoxy	p. 23
The Biblical Canon and the Problem of Textual Reception	p. 24
Alternative Proposals for the Problem of Interpretation	p. 29
Ulrich Luz: Wirkungsgeschichte	p. 29
Richard B. Hays: Intertextual Reading of Scripture	p. 32
Frances Young: The Ethics of Reading Paul	p. 39
The Development of Young's Understanding	p. 40
A Critical Assessment of Young's Hermeneutical Proposals	p. 42
Luke T. Johnson: Exegesis and Hermeneutics	p. 46
Johnson's Interpretive Approach	p. 47
Critical Reflections on Johnson's Proposals	p. 48
Wayne A. Meeks: The Social Context of Pauline Theology	p. 50
Meeks's Approach Outlined	p. 51
Examples of Meeks's Social Interpretation	p. 52
A Critical Evaluation of Meeks's Approach	p. 56
The Role of the Canon and Jesus' Identity	p. 60
The Shaping of the Pauline Corpus	p. 65
The Letter to the Romans	p. 65
The Pastoral Epistles	p. 69
The Hermeneutical Significance of the Canonical Structure	p. 75
Exegetical Probes: Introduction and Guidelines	p. 79
Paul's Apostolate and the Gospel	p. 81
Characteristic Features of Paul's Apostleship	p. 83
The Theological Implications of Canon	p. 96
Abraham's Faith in Galatians 3 and Romans 4	p. 97
J. C. Beker's Categories of Contingency and Coherence	p. 97
J. Louis Martyn's Analysis of the Role of the "Teachers"	p. 99
A Canonical Reading of Abraham's Faith according to Paul	p. 103
Justification in Philippians	p. 108
Justification in the Pastorals	p. 110
Hermeneutical Implications	p. 111
Life in the Spirit	p. 112
Romans 8:1-27	p. 113
Galatians 5:13-26	p. 115
The Canonical Relation of Romans 8 and Galatians 5	p. 117
2 Corinthians 3:1-4:6	p. 122
Richard Hays and Ernst Kasemann on 2 Corinthians 3	p. 135
Community Gifts and Worship	p. 138
1 Corinthians 12-14	p. 139
Romans 12:1-21	p. 143
Canonical Shaping of Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12	p. 145
Ephesians 4:7-16	p. 148
The Order of the Church and Its Offices	p. 153
Introduction: The History of the Debate	p. 153
The Pastoral Letters in the Debate	p. 156
The Broadening of the Discussion	p. 157
The Contributions of German Catholic Scholarship	p. 159
Hermeneutical Implications of the Debate	p. 164
The Weak and the Strong	p. 167
1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1	p. 167
Romans 14:1-15:13	p. 171
Comparison of Corinthians and Romans	p. 173
The Weak and Strong within the Pauline Corpus	p. 175
Israel and the Church: Romans 9-11	p. 178
Form, Function, and Purpose of Romans 9-11	p. 178
Paul's Gospel Grounded on Israel's Scriptures	p. 183
The Hermeneutics of Paul's Use of Scripture	p. 189
The Canonical Function of Romans 9-11	p. 192
The Apocalyptic Shape of Paul's Theology	p. 194
The Old Testament Background of Apocalypticism	p. 195
Characteristic Features of Apocalypticism	p. 197
Apocalyptic and the Growth of Early Christianity	p. 199
Apocalyptic Traditions within the Pauline Corpus	p. 206
Theological and Canonical Implications of Apocalyptic	p. 216
The Canonical Framing of the Pauline Corpus	p. 219
Acts of the Apostles	p. 219
The Debate over the Canonical Role of Luke-Acts	p. 219
The Canonization of Acts	p. 223
The Goals, Purpose, and Function of Acts	p. 226
The Hermeneutical Effect of the Canonization of Acts	p. 231
The Singularity of Paul's Letters and Their Corporate Form	p. 234
Kahler's Hermeneutic and the So-called Historical Paul	p. 236
Hebrews	p. 237
Critical Issues	p. 237
Major Theological Themes of Continuity	p. 239
Themes of Radical Discontinuity	p. 241
Exhortation and Parenesis	p. 242
The Humanity of Jesus	p. 244
The Major Hermeneutical Issues at Stake	p. 244
Reasons for the Inclusion of Hebrews in the Pauline Corpus	p. 248
The Effect of Hebrews within the Pauline Corpus	p. 249
Theological Implications of the Pauline Corpus for Interpretation	p. 253
The Theological Integrity of a Canonical Reading	p. 253
The Canonical Context as an Interpretive Guide	p. 254
Canonical Shaping and Reader Interpretation	p. 255
The Hermeneutical Dialectic in Reading the Corpus	p. 255
The Historical and Canonical Paul	p. 256
The Christological Content of the Pauline Witness	p. 257
The Faithfulness of God to His Promises	p. 258
The Eschatological-Apocalyptical Witness of Paul	p. 258
Index of Names and Subjects	p. 261
Index of Scripture References	p. 270
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