N. T. Wright, Paul

N. T. Wright has been one of the most important and prolific Biblical scholars over the past decade. His major series Christian Origins and the Question of God has already begun to have serious impact on scholarship, through his narrative readings of important texts, and through his reappraisal of the Jewish thinking in the first century, with his focus on the theme of exile and return as a key to undertanding Jewish self-understanding as the people of God. In this small book, he points forward to the next step of his major scholarly undertaking (after focusing in on method and then on Jesus' life and then resurrection), his study of Paul. In these lectures, he looks at the major themes of Paul's thinking, first through an appraisal of some underguirding themes that made up his thought-world, and then through a brief systematic presentation of Paul's theology.

In the first part of the book, Wright outlines his understanding of Paul's world, and then outlines some basic underlying themes that illuminate his thinking. The first pair of themes he raises are creation and covenant. He emphasizes that these two themes are integral to a proper understanding of Judaism, and would be the major constituent's of a second-Temple Jew's theological thinking. In Paul's thought, Wright sees that these two themes have been brought together, in passages such as Colossians 1:15-20 (which Wright argues is probably Pauline), and Romans 1-11. These two themes come together in Jesus, and are redefined around him. The second pari of themes that Wright looks at are Messiah and Apocalyptic. Throughout this chapter, Wright argues that the idea of Messiaship was a central one for Paul's understanding of Jesus, and further, that this has profound "apocalyptic" implications for Paul. In fact, apocalyptic is an essential way of understanding the fact that in Jesus, God has revealed his plan for the world, and even though Paul doesn't often use the standard forms of apocalyptic literature (dreams, visions, dense imagery), he does often speak apocalyptically. The fianl themes that Wright illumines in Paul's thought are Gospel and Empire. In this last section of part one, he explores this burgeoning area of Pauline studies, emphasizing that the Roman Empire did in fact provide an important element in Paul's world, and that it clearly had implications for his thinking. Wright echoes many other writers in NT studies with his assertion that "political" can't be separated out from "domestic" or "theological" or "religious" spheres of life and existence. These elements were all bound together into one complex world. Thus, Wright argues that Paul's theology, among other things, was counter imperial, and proclaiming Jesus as Lord meant that Caesar wasn't Lord, a "political" statement as much as a "religions" or "theological" one.

Wright then turns to a brief but illuminating systematic exposition of Paul's theology, organized not in the traditional way of something like "God, humanity's need, God's gift, future things," or some other such arrangement, but instead organized around what Wright sees as the main Jewish loci: God, God's people, God's future. Wright asserts that these three loci are still the important centers of Paul's thought, and that we can best understand his way of thinking by seeing how Paul preserved but also modified these three areas of thought, and in each area, Wright helpfully explores the Jewish understanding of the loci, and then looks at Paul's redefinition of it. The first locus he investigates is God. For Jews, the basic doctrine of God is that God is one God, the covenant and creator God. Paul has maintained just this same emphasis, while "rethinking" it to include Jesus and the Spirit as being indeed this same one God. And further, this means that he sees in Jesus that the covenant God has in fact taken the problems of creation and covenant on himself by coming to earth and fulfilling the covenant through his own faithfulness. The second area Wright looks at is God's people, election. Here he closely interacts with the "new perspective" on Paul and on second-Temple Judaism. He is essentially in agreement with Sanders on a reunderstanding of Judaism so as to understand that Judaism didn't understand the law as a way of earning favor with God, but instead was a marker given by God to define their identity as the covenant people and as a way of maintaing that covenant relationship. Yet Wright also agrees that Israel clearly wasn't properly upholding its part of that covenant relationship. And it is here that Jesus fits into his "reworking" of God's people. Election around Jesus means that God's people are no longer understood as those descended by birth from Abraham, but instead as those with faith in Jesus, those "justified" through faith. But he strongly advocates a reunderstanding of justification, asserting that while it does have to do with sinners being made right with God, it is first and foremost in Paul's thikning about "how I am declared to be a member of God's people." And Jesus is the key to this, because in Jesus, Israel has been reconstituted, and through Jesus this Israel will fulfill the mission God originally set for it--Israel is no longer understood as an ethnic idea but is more understood as an instrument in God's purposes. The third area Wright explores is eschatology, God's future. After an exploration of Jewish understandings, with his characteristic emphasis on the themes of exile and return as central, Wright goes on to look at how, for Paul, Jesus has changed things. In Jesus, what God had promised to happen in the future (the resurrection) has happened already in the middle, bringing i what is often called an inaugurated eschatology. The end is breaking into the middle time. Another theme Wright sees as central to Paul is the parousia, the "second coming" of Christ. But Wright asserts that this second coming should be best understood not as Jesus coming from some heaven far away to earth but instead understood as coming with "royal presence" much as an emperor would, and that this coming would not be the end of the present world but a new creation of it. Wright also highlights some other important themes (too many to go into here), such as the Day of the Lord and judgment. In his closing chapter, Wright looks at how these theological understandings related to those of Jesus and how they played out in Paul's ministry. He also concludes by looking at how Paul's thinking bears on the church's ministry today.

In Paul, Wright has made a very helpful contribution to the field of Pauline studies. He has, in his usual lucid prose, illuminated a number of important issues and given some helpful groundwork for understanding this most important apostle. He has also creatively pointed toward a new way of "thinking Paul's thoughts after him," in dialogue with the way people have done this in the past. Wright's rethinking of such major themes as justification seems to walk an interesting middle road between a traditional Reformation approach and a new-perspective approach. I fear some of the important elements of themes like the righteousness of God are weakend in his treatment, but some of that impression may be due to the brief nature of the book in hand. While Wright clearly rejects a purely sociological approach to salvation and justification, he seems to too much ignore the believer's relationship with God. But again, more room will likely bring a more complete and illuminating treatment. I look forward with anticipation to his fuller treatment on these thems in his next volume of the Christian Origins series. This great little volume certainly gives us a bit of the flavor, and makes us hunger for the substantive engagement to come.

F. F. Bruce, Paul

F. F. Bruce is one of the most distinguished Evangelical Biblical scholars of the past generation. In this great book, he focuses in on the Apostle Paul. He structures the book in essentially chronological order, synthesizing much of the material from Acts with what can be discerned from the letters of his travels. This account includes a very detailed historical discussion of the various settings for the letters, as well as cultural and historical factors that would have effected Paul's thinking. He also pauses to reflect on the character and theology of each of Paul's writings, including the undisputed letters, the disputed letters, and also the Pastorals. He makes a case for Pauline authorship of all of the letters, and takes a more guarded stance on the Pastorals, but still including them in his scheme, or at least allowing room for them.

Bruce's account is full of important information, and helps bring the biographical and historical details about Paul and his first-century setting together with his epistles. This sheds insightful light on Paul's writing, and helps to contextualize his theology. And his well-thought-out and well-reasoned positions on things like authorship, chronology, and theology, make this book a great starting point in the study of Paul. He is also well aware of the major critical issues with regard to Pauline scholarship, and introduces the reader to the relevant questions as well as guiding the readers toward well-reasoned answers. The book was written in 1977, which means that there have been some major changes in Pauline scholarship, but E. P. Sanders had already begun the "new perspective" movement, so even though Bruce doesn't interact with it in detail, the trajectory of what would certainly have become a more detailed evaluation at later date is already evident in its pages.
Paul played a central role in the development of Christianity, and in its spread throughout the Mediterranean region in the years after Jesus' death. And through is writings he has decisively shaped Christian thought ever since. Bruce lends a scholar's and historian's eye to the study of this important figure and the writings he left. His contribution is full of important information, and is certainly an important building block in understanding this most important Apostle. Highly recommended.

Tom Clancy, Debt of Honor

The Jack Ryan saga continues from The Sum of All Fears with this next massive installment. Ryan has stepped out of government service, but is called back again, this time as National Security Advisor to President Durling. Meanwhile, a complicated web of events is unfolding. A few business leaders in Japan have schemed to increase the power of their country. This grand plan has as its goal the seizure, along with China, of a large portion of eastern Siberia, to greatly increase the natural resources available to Japan. Meanwhile, the Japanese are made to realize their dependence upon America as an automobile accident causes the American public to push for more restricted trade with Japan (essentially enacting the same laws with regard to Japanese products that Japan enacts with regard to American products). This is the final straw, that pushes Japan into action.

The first major move of the offensive is economic, as a few major Japanese businesses, along with a well-placed buisenessman who has taken the lead position in a major American equity firm, begin a run on the dollar by dumping American T-bills. A few strategic moves lead to a steep decline in the value of American currency, and the corresponding rise in Japanese Yen. The day on the market turns out to be disasterous, but is made even more so because a second part of the attac, the loss of all of the data from the trades for that day, leaves doubt as to who owns what and who owes who money--in other words, confusion. The second part of the Japanese offensive also begins, with the quiet military occupation of Saipan and Guam. The third tier in the attack is the "accidental" crippling of two American aircraft carriers at the conclusion of a friendly military exercise, greatly reducing America's ability to project force in the Pacific. And with India occupying the attention of America's two carriers in the Indian Ocean with the threat of a military action against Sri Lanka, a very difficult stage is set. Ryan, as NSA, councils that the solution to the market crisis is to say that nothing officially happened after noon, when the data was lost. Everyone goes back to where they were at that point (an idea most traders would go for, because of the disasterous happenings of that afternoon). In order to counter Japan's military moves, America carefully strikes at their home country by destroying their air defenses, and especially their very advanced AWACS aircraft. This is done by stealth aircraft, by stealth helicopters, and also by some covert action by John Clark and Domingo Chavez. As the defenses of the Japanese homeland fall, it becomes clear that even the crippled America could strike at Japan. The wild card had become the fact that Japan had developed nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, but some careful attacks by America neutralized their missiles. Without this last card to play, the buisenessmen who had been pushing the offensive action were silenced, and a more orderly government was restored, all without a major offensive operation by America against Japan. But as events were resolving, a lone pilot of Japan's national airline fakes an in-flight emergency and crashes his plane into the Capitol building during a joing session of congress, which had been convened to swear in Ryan as the new Vice President, a post he was assuming after the VP had to resign in disgrace. Ryan survived, but almost the entire American government, including supreme court justices and the president, were eliminated in one stroke. A problem Ryan will have to deal with in the next book, Executive Orders.

The first time I read this book, I remember getting bored. And the first few hundred pages are a lot of information, but in true Clancy fassion he brings together a staggering array of plot lines into a great story. It deserves to rank with the rest of the Ryan saga as a great work of espionage fiction.

C. S. Forester, The African Queen

The African Queen is an interesting story of a journey through the heart of Africa during the days of international conflict of WW I. Rose Sayer is the sister of a missionary living in the heart of Africa. After he dies of sickness, she is left alone in the midst of the continent. She encounters Allnutt, a pilot of a small steam-powered launch for a mining company. The Germans have just come through and conscripted every able-bodied African to fight against the advancing British and Allied forces, and Rose has found herself alone. So she heads off with Allnutt. After they've been on the launch a few days, she gets the patriotic idea that she wants to make a difference in the war, and do something to the Germans, who she blames for her brothers death (the taking away of the people to whom he was ministering took the purpose and fruit of his work away and caused him to despair, she thought). So they begin the treacherous journey down river to the lake at the end, where a German boat, the only boat on the lake other than small native canoes, rules the waters and stands guard against advancing forces. Their journey is a time for Rose to develop and mature, as she begins to make her own decisions and realise her own strength, after a life living in deference to her father and then to her missionary brother. During their journey, her an Allnutt also fall in love.

Along with the story of development of these two characters, they are undertaking a difficult journey down almost uncharted waters. The first have to skirt a German outpost on the river, and make it by with only a few shots fired at them. They next must navigate the launch down the canyon toward the lake, a journey full of eddies, rocks, and rapids. Allnutt mans the boiler, which needs constant attention to keep the pressure where it needs to be without blowing out the fragile seals, and Rose handles the tiller. Along the way they damage the shaft and screw of the boat, and need to do some make-shift repairs, which Allnutt manages. After finally making it to the lake, a journey that has only been accomplished once before, they see the German boat. Their plan is to make their little lanuch, The African Queen, into a torpedo and run it into the German boat. And they set out to do just that, but on the night the try it, a storm comes up and sinks the launch before they make it out to the German boat. Both of them are eventually captured, but the Germans don't know what to make of them, and turn them over to the advancing British forces. The British, in turn, manage to sink the German boat. They also send Allnutt and Rose off to the coast, him to join the army and her to go back to England, but the two of them decide when they get to the coast that they will get married, and that is where we leave them.

It wasn't a bad book. The development of the characters was interesting, as was the African setting. Reminiscent in some ways of Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Tom Clancy, The Sum of All Fears

In The Sum of All Fears, Clancy continues the Jack Ryan saga. This spectacularly written book details a terrorist plot to hurt the United States and to push us into war with the soviets.

An Islamic terrorist orgainization recovers an Israeli nuclear bomb lost in the 1973 war in the Golan Heights. After ascertaining what it is they have recovered, they quietly obtain the services of a retired German engineer to remake the bomb using the nuclear material from their recovered device. Using obtainable machinery (used in applications like astronimical telesope manufacture and other technical applications) they are able to engineer and manufacture a two-stage nuclear fusion bomb (Hydrogen bomb). Their plan for delivery is to import the bomb into the US and detonate it at the Super Bowl in Denver. And this is precisely what they do. Meanwhile, other important events are unfolding. Ryan is Deputy Director of the CIA. Ryan has suggested a plan for Mid-East peace centering around a peaceful solution to the situation in Israel: Isreael and Palestine are given discreet borders, including the total withdrawl of Isreal from the West Bank. The United states and the United Nations guarantee security for the Israelis and the Palestinians. Jerusalem, the center of the tension, is governed by a committee of three clerics, one Christian (the head of the Orthodox Church), one Islamic, and one Jewish. This three-person panel is in charge of the operation of a large Swiss Guard force in charge of physical security of the city. It's actually a very brilliant plan, one that one wishes could be engineered in real life.

Ryan has butted heads with the President and the National Security Advisor, and the National Security Advisor, Elizabeth Elliott, sets out to undo him. She thinks she has uncovered dirt on financial and sexual impropriety, and sets out to smear Ryan. But Clark, head of Ryan's protective detail, sees the effects of the lies, and sets out to spread the truth, first by convincing Ryan's wife that the allegations are true. Once that is accomplished he goes to the reporter that printed the story and convinces him that he has been merely used in a smear campaign. While all this is going on, the US is getting intelligence from Russia that the Russian president may be in danger of losing control of his country and his military. As events are quickly moving to a head, Ryan is doubting the veracity of the report.

Then the bomb goes off. US and Soviet agencies both detect the signature double-blast pattern of a nuclear detonation, and chaos ensues. Nobody knows where the bomb came from. There is no inbound ballistic path (meaning a missile), but that is all they know. A second part of the terrorist's plot immediately ensues, as they pose as soviet officers and instigate a skirmish between Soviet and US tank forces in Berlin. This becomes one of a series of cascading events that add to the chaos and make both the Soviets and the Americans wonder if the other side is pushing for war. All the while, fragmentary information lacks the needed clarity. But slowly, a picture is beginning to emerge that the device, which first looked too large for a terrorist device, may in fact be just that. Ryan has tried to communicate these findings to the President, but President Fowler and NSA Elliott have realized that they were supposed to be at the game, and are slowly coming unglued under the pressure. Ryan finally sees that the Hot-Line messages from the President to Moscow are becoming more escalated, and he breaks into the Hot-Line area and speaks directly with Soviet President Narminov, giving him the news that the US knows it wasn't the Soviets, and helping to instigate an immediate step-down in violence and a pull-back of forces. The terrorist plot almost works.

This long and involved thriller pulls you along through all one thousand of its pages. Clancy has woven a realistic (almost prophetic) plot together with very good character development and exciting action. Again, vintage Clancy, and certainly worth the read. It is a great opportunity to reflect on terrorism and its implications, and also spurs us on to hope of a real peace in the Middle East. Worth reading!