Galatians And Christian Theology

The letter to the Galatians is a key source for Pauline theology as it presents Paul's understanding of justification, the gospel, and many topics of keen contemporary interest. In this volume, some of the world's top Christian scholars offer cutting-edge scholarship on how Galatians relates to theology and ethics. The stellar list of contributors includes John Barclay, Beverly Gaventa, Richard Hays, Bruce McCormack, and Oliver O'Donovan. As they emphasize the contribution of Galatians to Christian theology and ethics, the contributors explore how exegesis and theology meet, critique, and inform each other.

Paul's Letter to the Galatians is one of the fiercest and most polemical writings in the Bible. That is what makes it, for the author of this study, such an exciting document to deal with. It emerges from the early days of a vigorous new movement (Christianity), when basic principles were first being formulated, and when the whole character of the movement was at stake. In the pages of Galatians we witness fundamental features of Christian theology taking shape before our eyes, where the living heart of Paul's gospel is encountered. For James D. G. Dunn there is an elemental quality about the letter, to which those tired of compromising half-truths are drawn when they feel the impulse to return to first principles. This book, which benefits from this perspective on Paul, explains more clearly than hitherto both the issues which confronted Paul and the powerful theological arguments he brought to bear in response, and casts light on a document still capable of shaping lives and theology today.

The first major biblical commentary from the pen of N. T. Wright While full of theological import, Paul’s letter to the Galatians also captures and memorializes a significant moment in the early history of Christianity. This commentary from N. T. Wright—the inaugural volume of the CCF series—offers a theological interpretation of Galatians that never loses sight of the political concerns of its historical context. With these two elements of the letter in dialogue with each other, readers can understand both what Paul originally meant and how his writing might be faithfully used to respond to present questions. Each section of verse-by-verse commentary in this volume is followed by Wright’s reflections on what the text says about Christian formation today, making this an excellent resource for individual readers and those preparing to teach or preach on Galatians. The focus on formation is especially appropriate for this biblical letter, in which Paul wrote to his fellow early Christians, “My children—I seem to be in labor with you all over again, until the Messiah is fully formed in you!”

This second edition brings the original discussion into line with recent scholarship.

Galatians is part of The Christian Standard Commentary (CSC) series. This commentary series focuses on the theological and exegetical concerns of each biblical book, while paying careful attention to balancing rigorous scholarship with practical application. This series helps the reader understand each biblical book's theology, its place in the broader narrative of Scripture, and its importance for the church today. Drawing on the wisdom and skills of dozens of evangelical authors, the CSC is a tool for enhancing and supporting the life of the church.

In the early 1970’s, due to serious epistemological flaws, the demise of traditional New Testament research paradigms became imminent. A new generation of scholars started the search for a fresh approach, based on scientifically sound principles. Working within the stimulating atmosphere of the New Testament Society of South Africa, the author was one of the pioneers in developing a new, multi-dimensional research approach for New Testament studies. The articles in the present volume, written over a period of 25 years, reflect part of this journey, as viewed from a Pauline perspective. Combining the positive aspects of the traditional biblical research paradigms with the important insights of modern linguistics, literary science, semantics and pragmatics, particularly rhetoric, the author investigates the convergence of various influences in Paul’s pre-christian career. He proposes new possibilities of understanding Paul’s language and style, such as hyperbolical contrasts, typical of his Semitic background. Various aspects of his strategies of persuasion are investigated, such as creating an ethos, vilification, alienation and re-identification. The majority of articles concentrate on central elements in Pauline theology: belief in the resurrection of Jesus, the centrality of grace, the in Christ and related formulae, faith and obedience, justification in Romans, Christian identity, ethics and ethos, as portrayed in Romans.

Paul's notion of Christian liberty must be understood within the context of love, God's love for humanity as manifested in the person of Jesus Christ and the believer's love for God and neighbor. The apostle informs the Christians under his care that hey have been freed from the enslavement of sin and death so that they might love more fully. By virtue of their union with the risen Lord, Christians are free to love, in the deepest sense of the word, God, others, and themselves. John Buckel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and an alumnus of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is currently Assistant Professor of New Testament exegesis at St. Meinrad School of Theology. He has lectured extensively on St. Paul throughout the United States.

This new commentary in the New Testament Library series is not a systematic study of Pauline theology; rather, the aim of this study is to trace Paul's theology as it unfolds in his letter to the church at Galatia, and to attempt to illuminate, as far as possible, how the Galatians likely comprehended it, at the time they received it. The author asks readers to imagine themselves as silent witnesses to Paul's dictation of the letter and to observe, through a historical perspective, how the Galatian Christians might have understood Paul's words.