Paul & the Law - by Frank Thielman (Paperback)

About the Book

An important contribution to a key issue in Pauline scholarship, this work examines Paul's view of the law as found in his letters and considers the cultural context in which Paul's ideas about the law took shape. Thielman provides an illuminating, contemporary discussion of Paul and a noteworthy corrective to some of the hypotheses of the "new persepective".

Book Synopsis

Responding to recent debate among scholars, Frank Thielman examines Paul's view of the law within the context of each of his letters.

Review Quotes

"Frank Thielman's exposition of the issues surrounding Paul's interpretation of the Jewish law is lucid and helpful. Students should find this book a reliable guide through a thicket of formidable exegetical problems. Thielman's method of examining the role of Paul's statements about the law within the argument of each individual letter is an important advance in the study of this central topic in Pauline theology."

"The last two decades have seen an explosion of new approaches to Paul's theology and especially to his theology of the Old Testament and Judaism. This so-called new perspective on Paul has demanded response from various theological traditions. Frank Thielman's book on Paul and the law is the most thorough response to these issues to date. Not everyone will agree with all of his perspecitves and conclusions, but his book forms a fine starting point for further discussions of these matters."

"This book reasserts Reformation concerns about Paul and the law in a manner that will be very appealing to conservative Protestants; it provides a kind of neo-Calvinist slant on the law. It does so in a fair-minded way, and quite persuasively, dealing far more cogently with the different historical contexts of the Pauline letters than is normal in books on this topic."

About the Author

Thielman is associate professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama. He is the author of From Plight to Solution: A Jewish Framework for Understanding Paul's View of the Law in Galatians and Romans. (Brill).