Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters

by N. T. Wright

Publisher:

SPCK

, 2004

Overview

Writing in an approachable and anecdotal style, Tom Wright helps us to see the pastoral nature of these three letters. They are not just instruction books for junior disciples, but a guide to a way of life, and in many ways appropriate to all Christians.

Two strands in particular run through the letters. First, Paul is anxious that those who profess the faith should allow the gospel to transform the whole of their lives, right down to the deepest parts of their personality. Second, he is anxious that every teacher of the faith should know how to build up the community in mutual support, rather than tear it apart through the wrong sort of teaching and behavior.

Product Details

• Title: Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Publisher: SPCK
• Publication Date: 2003
• Pages: 192
• Christian Group: Anglican

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Tom Wright, commonly known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Andrews University. Previously, he was the bishop of Durham. He has researched, taught, and lectured on the New Testament at McGill, Oxford, and Cambridge Universities, and has been named by Christianity Today a top theologian. He is best known for his scholarly contributions to the historical study of Jesus and the New Perspective on Paul. His work interacts with the positions of James Dunn, E. P. Sanders, Marcus Borg, and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Wright has written and lectured extensively around the world, authoring more than forty books and numerous articles in scholarly journals and popular periodicals. He is best known for his Christian Origins and the Question of God Series, of which three of the anticipated six volumes are finished.

Sample Pages from the Print Edition

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Contents

Top Highlights

“‘try to dictate to them’ is unusual, but seems to have the overtones of ‘being bossy’ or ‘seizing control’. Paul is saying, like Jesus in Luke 10, that women must have the space and leisure to study and learn in their own way, not in order that they may muscle in and take over the leadership as in the Artemis-cult, but so that men and women alike can develop whatever gifts of learning, teaching and leadership God is giving them.” (Pages 25–26)

“And we have here a crisp, clear statement of what that teaching aims at: not just the conveying of information, but a whole way of life, summed up in verse 5 under three headings: genuine love, good conscience and sincere faith.” (Page 6)

“First, Paul is anxious that everyone who professes Christian faith should allow the gospel to transform the whole of their lives, so that the outward signs of the faith express a living reality that comes from the deepest parts of the personality. Second, he is also anxious that each Christian, and especially every teacher of the faith, should know how to build up the community in mutual love and support, rather than, by the wrong sort of teaching or behaviour, tearing it apart.” (Page 6)

“They mean what Paul literally says in verse 16: this thing, this book, has living breath in it, and it’s the breath of God himself.” (Page 120)

“The reason we are summoned to avoid speaking evil of people, not to be quarrelsome, and so on, is that we are ourselves the creatures of God’s generous love, and if we aren’t showing that same generous, kindly, forgiving love we have obviously forgotten the path by which we’ve come.” (Page 161)

Product Details

• Title: Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Series: For Everyone Bible Study Guides
• Publisher: SPCK
• Print Publication Date: 2004
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. N.T. Titus › Commentaries; Bible. N.T. Pastoral Epistles › Commentaries; Bible. N.T. 1 Timothy › Commentaries; Bible. N.T. 2 Timothy › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9780664227944, 0664227945
• Resource ID: LLS:EVRYPASTEP
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-08-30T23:59:40Z

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Thomas “Tom” Wright (1948–) is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Christianity Today named him one of today's top theologians. 

Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, and recounts an awareness of God's presence from a young age—and that relationship with God ever since is reflected in his life and work. He's a prolific author; one of his most popular books, Surprised by Hope, frames the resurrection of the dead as the appropriate hope for all believers rather than an overemphasis on just "going to heaven when you die." He's among the leading theologians in the New Perspective on Paul debate. Wright has several honorary doctoral degrees, and in 2014, the British Academy awarded him the Burkitt Medal "in recognition of special service to biblical studies." In 2015, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Wright served as chaplain at Cambridge from 1978 to 1981, then as assistant professor of New Testament language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. Before becoming a chaplain, tutor, lecturer, and fellow at Oxford in 1986, Wright served as dean of Lichfield Cathedral, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, and the bishop of Durham from 2003–10. In addition to the entire New Testament for Everyone Series, some of N. T. Wright's books include The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, Who Was Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, God and the Pandemic, Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, and Simply Christian. He coauthored Jesus the Final Days with Craig A. Evans.

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Sample Pages from Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters