The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary behind the Church’s Conservative Icon. By Marcus J Borg & JohnDominic Crossan. Pp.vi, 230. SPCK, London, 2009, d8.99.

The overblown subtitle of this jointly authored bookis unnecessarily iconoclastic but the aim is to readPaul afresh detached from later traditions. It is‘reception history’ in reverse. The book is directedat non-academic readers who are first shown how toread one of Paul’s letters in the context of other lettersof the time. We are then directed to ‘three Pauls’: theradical Paul of the seven authentic letters (on slaveryand patriarchy in particular), the conservative Paul ofthe doubtful letters, and the reactionary Paul ofEphesians and the Pastoral Epistles which are not byPaul. But the authors go further; they want to defendPaul’s understanding of the cross and sacrifice fromAnselm and Catholic tradition, and Paul’s idea ofjustification from Luther and later evangelical tradi-tion. I always look askance at any writer who saysthat everyone has misunderstood such-and-such anauthor until me, but Borg and Crossan do succeed inoffering a consistent interpretation of Paul in theround. That is, they look at the wholeness of Paul’sthinking in a concise way and they focus on Paul’sown writings, especially Romans and Galatians.The authors are particularly good at contrasting

Paul’s christology with the imperial theology ofRome that lauded the emperor as saviour, son ofgod, Lord, and a god to whom prayers and sacrificeswere to be offered. The political dimension of Paul’sgospel is brought out, in which the imperial pattern ofsalvation/peace coming through war and victory isreplaced by peace through non-violence and justice.And in which retributive justice (punishing enemiesand wrong-doers) in the empire is replaced bydistributive justice (sharing resources equitably) inthe Church. Paul’s eschatology is shown to be directlycomparable with Jesus’ vision of the kingdom whichfocus God’s great cleaning-up of this world, whichwas primarily the world of Rome. To that extent Paulhad a very dangerous message, yet his fear was notthat Christians will be killed but that they will

conform to Roman standards and themselves kill inrebellion against Rome. Borg and Crossan explainthat when Paul says we have to work out oursalvation in fear and trembling this ‘is not becauseGod will punish us if we fail, but because the worldwill punish us if we succeed’. If true, this suggests thatthere have not been enough martyrs in the Church.The authors – one Lutheran, one Catholic – think

that Luther’s presentation of justification sola fidepresents a false problem. But the reader mighthesitate over the way they try to cut through theproblem by insisting that in Paul faith means faith-with-works, while works means works-without-faith.It is all too neat and Paul does not actually say that. Itlooks as though all references to eating meals in Paulare about the Eucharist and yet when 1 Cor 11criticises those who eat and drink in an unworthymanner, failing to discern the body ‘refers to thecommunity as the body of Christ. The way the Lord’sSupper was being practiced in Corinth denied theequality of life ‘in Christ’’. When the richness ofPaul’s ‘in Christ’ language is reduced to ‘shorthandfor Paul’s vision of Christian community’ we suspectthat the multi-dimensionality of Paul is being reducedto something which is not wrong but is limited. Whatemerges is a Paul with a vision of social justice, incontradistinction to Rome’s imperium, that is con-sistent with the picture of Jesus, the crucified (but notrisen) teacher of Crossan’s earlier books. Is there lifebeyond the grave in this account of Paul? It is notclear, but probably not, despite 1 Cor 15. This is not amisconceived book on Paul; it is full of insights andadds a dimension to conventional interpretations, whilecorrecting some old misunderstandings. Some will bedrawn to its social and political dimension, others willhave some reservations, but all its readers will be madeto reflect about some of Paul’s own words.

Harrogate, UK Geoffrey Turner

Judgment and Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul. By Chris VanLandingham. Pp. xvi, 384.Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2006, d16.99.

‘Judgment’ in the title refers to the last judgment, forthe book deals with the question of how one might besaved according to Paul and according to Jewishliterature broadly contemporary with Paul. This inturn is related to Paul’s doctrine of justification byfaith. Lest this sounds like ‘more of the same’ in termsof recent Pauline scholarship, it should be said thatChris VanLandingham offers a challenging and, insome respects, startling interpretation of Paul.The author tells us that the impetus for the work,

originally a doctoral dissertation, was a disagreementwith E P Sanders’ understanding of Judaism as‘covenantal nomism’. In contrast to Luther’s pulling

Christianity and Judaism apart by characterisingJudaism as a (failed) religion of salvation throughmeritorious deeds and Christianity as a gospel ofsalvation through God’s grace, Sanders pushed themcloser together by emphasising the role of grace inJewish religion. For Sanders, the Rabbis do notrepresent a debased legalism. One is saved throughelection to the covenant. The law is to be kept to showthat one has not abandoned the covenant. The finaljudgment will reward or punish our relative success inobeying the law but will not fundamentally affect oursalvation. To be saved one has to be Jewish, in thecovenant, and once in one cannot fail to be saved

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