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 M. CHRISTOPHER WHITE SCHOOL OF DIVINITYPAUL AND THE LAW: THE NEW PERSPECTIVESUBMITTED TO DR. RON WILLIAMSIN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFRELI625 NEW TESTAMENT SEMINARBYTHOMAS J. WHITLEY21 APRIL 2009
 
1
In 1963 Krister Stendahl, Swedish theologian and New Testament scholar, published apaper that argued that the dominant Lutheran view on Paul and his theology was actually not
consistent with Paul’s own writings.
1
Rather, Stendahl argued, the prevailing interpretationswere based more
on mistaken assumptions about Paul’s beliefs than actual careful reading and
interpretation of his writings. As incendiary as this may seem, the so-
called “New Perspectiveon Paul” did not take off after this work. The work,
instead, that is usually considered theimpetus of the new perspective is
E. P. Sanders’ 1977 work,
Paul and Palestinian Judaism
.Critiques have been issued and rejoinders made, but these will be discussed in more detailbelow. The important point now is that for over four decades now, there has been a slow, butsteady change in Pauline studies.
Since James D. G. Dunn is credited for coining the term “new perspective on Paul,” it
should suffice for his definition to guide us in our discussion of this new trend in Paulinestudies. Dunn, in his recently revised
The New Perspective on Paul 
, lays out very clearly what he
means when he uses the terminology, “the new perspective on Paul:”
 1.
 
It builds on Sanders’ new perspective on Second Temple Judaism, and Sanders’reassertion of the basic graciousness expressed in Judaism’s understanding and practice
of covenantal nomism.2.
 
It observes that a social function of the law was an integral aspect of Israel’s covenantal
nomism, where separateness
to
God (holiness) was understood to require separateness
 from
the (other) nations as two sides of one coin, and that the law was understood asthe means to maintaining both.3.
 
It notes that Paul’s own teaching on justification focuses largely if not principally on the
need to overcome the barrier which the law was seen to interpose between Jew and
1
 
Krister Stendahl, “
The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West
,”
in
The Harvard Theological Review 
56 no. 3 (July 1963): 199-215. Republished in
Paul Among Jews and Gentiles
, (AugsburgFortress Publishers) 1976.
 
2
Gentile, so that the ‘all’ of ‘to all who believe’ (Rom. 1.17) signifies, in the first place,
Gentile as well as Jew.4.
 
It suggests that ‘works of the law’ became a key slogan in Paul’s
exposition of his
 justification gospel because so many of Paul’s fellow Jewish believers were insisting on
certain works as indispensible to salvation.5.
 
It protests that failure to recognise this major dimension of Paul’s doctrine of 
 justification by faith may have ignored or excluded a vital factor in combating thenationalism and racialism which has so distorted and diminished Christianity past andpresent.
2
 
While Dunn’s definition is thorough and helpful, it nonetheless requires further explanation.
This paper, then will deal with each poin
t in Dunn’s definition in depth
.
As was previously mentioned, Sanders’
Paul and Palestinian Judaism
is considered thework that really started it all, as it were. The book, however, is mostly about Judaism. How,then, does a book that is mostly about Judaism spark the fire that has become the newperspective on Paul? The answer lies in what Sanders says and shows to be true about Judaism;namely, that it was not and is not a legalistic, works righteousness religion as it has been sodisparagingly cast by much of Christianity. Many, if not most, Christians read Paul and his
critique of the law as an unambiguous critique of Judaism’s legalistic efforts to gain God’s favor.
Christianity, in large part, has survived and succeeded as it has by casting it as the antithesis of 
Judaism. “
Judaism is earthly, carnal, proud; Christianity is heavenly, spiritual, humble.
”
3
It is
certainly not uncommon to portray one’s enemy as all that is bad in your sight. I echo Mark
2
James D. G. Dunn,
The New Perspective on Paul 
, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 16.
3
Mark
Mattison, “A Summary on the New Perspective on Paul.”
Mark Mattison.http://www.thepaulpage.com/Summary.html (accessed 16 April 2009).
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