James Dunn (theologian)

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James Douglas Grant Dunn

Born

21 October 1939 (age 76)

Birmingham, England

Nationality

British

Occupation

New Testament scholar

Known for

New Perspective on Paul

Title

Emeritus Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the

Department of Theology at the University of Durham

Academic background

Education

University of Glasgow, University of Cambridge

Thesis year

1968

Academic work

Discipline

Biblical studies

Sub

NT studies

discipline

Institutions

University of Durham

Notable

The New Perspective On Paul(2007)

works

James D. G. "Jimmy" Dunn FBA (born 21 October 1939)[1] is a British New Testament scholar
who was for many years the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the Department of Theology at
the University of Durham, now Emeritus Lightfoot Professor. He has worked broadly within
the Protestant tradition.
Dunn has an MA and BD from the University of Glasgow and a PhD and DD from
the University of Cambridge. For 2002, Dunn was the President of the Studiorum Novi
Testamenti Societas, an international body for New Testament study. Only three other British
scholars had been made President of the body in the preceding 25 years. In 2006 he became
a Fellow of the British Academy.
In 2005 a festschrift was published dedicated to Dunn, comprising articles by 27 New
Testament scholars, examining early Christiancommunities and their beliefs about the Holy
Spirit.[2]
Dunn is especially associated with the New Perspective on Paul, along with N. T. (Tom)
Wright and E. P. Sanders. He is credited with coining this phrase during his 1982 Manson
Memorial Lecture,[3] although he himself admitted that it was Wright who already used the term
in his 1978 Tyndale Lecture, where Dunn was sitting on the front row.[4]
Dunn has taken up Sanders' project of redefining Palestinian Judaism in order to correct the
Christian view of Judaism as a religion of works-righteousness. One of the most important
differences to Sanders is that Dunn perceives a fundamental coherence and consistency
to Paul's thought. He furthermore criticizes Sanders' understanding of the term "justification",
arguing that Sanders' understanding suffers from an "individualizing exegesis".
He is a minister of the Church of Scotland and a Methodist local preacher.