Pauline Dogmatics: The Triumph of God’s Love

by Douglas A. Campbell

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2020

Overview

The eschatological heart of Paul’s gospel in his world and its implications for today.

Drawing upon thirty years of intense study and reflection on Paul, Douglas Campbell offers a distinctive overview of the apostle’s thinking that builds on Albert Schweitzer’s classic emphasis on the importance for Paul of the resurrection. But Campbell—learning here from Karl Barth—traces through the implications of Christ for Paul’s thinking about every other theological topic, from revelation and the resurrection through the nature of the church and mission. As he does so, the conversation broadens to include Stanley Hauerwas in relation to Christian formation, and thinkers like Willie Jennings to engage post-colonial concerns.

But the result of this extensive conversation is a work that, in addition to providing a description of Paul’s theology, also equips readers with what amounts to a Pauline manual for church planting. Good Pauline theology is good practical theology, ecclesiology, and missiology, which is to say, Paul’s theology belongs to the church and, properly understood, causes the church to flourish. In these conversations Campbell pushes through interdisciplinary boundaries to explicate different aspects of Pauline community with notions like network theory and restorative justice.

The book concludes by moving to applications of Paul in the modern period to painful questions concerning gender, sexual activity, and Jewish inclusion, offering Pauline navigations that are orthodox, inclusive, and highly constructive.

Beginning with the God revealed in Jesus, and in a sense with ourselves, Campbell progresses through Pauline ethics and eschatology, concluding that the challenge for the church is not only to learn about Paul but to follow Jesus as he did.

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Key Features

• Explores the key topics and subjects of Paul’s thinking
• Examines issues of practical theology, ecclesiology, and missiology
• Clarifies and amplifies Pauline theology further for the benefit of today’s church

Contents

Part 1: Resurrection

• Jesus
• Vigilance
• A God of Love
• A God of Story
• Resurrection & Death
• Resurrection & Sin
• Defending Resurrection
• Election

Part 2: Formation

• A Learning Community
• Leaders
• Love is All You Need
• Loving as Giving
• Loving as Faithfulness
• Loving as Peacemaking
• Loving as Enjoying

Part 3: Mission

• An Apostolic Foundation
• Defining the Other
• The Triumph of Love
• Mission as Friendship

Part 4: Navigation

• Missional Diversity
• Evaluating Paganism
• Transforming Paganism
• Request Ethics
• Rethinking Creation
• Navigating Sex and Marriage
• Navigating Gender
• Beyond Colonialism
• Beyond Supersessionism
• The Pastor’s Wisdom

Top Highlights

“Learned Germans in the past called this Sachkritik (‘sense/subject interpretation’). The heart of the matter—the Sache—once it has been grasped, should be pressed clearly in relation to any statements that are not quite aligned with it.” (Page 7)

“I expect he might be patient with this exercise for a while, but then at some point I’m pretty sure that he would jump up—possibly wielding a whip—and shout: ‘For goodness sake! Haven’t you read what my writings actually say? You’re not meant to be sitting around debating them. You are meant to be out there doing what they tell you to do—meeting people and fostering Christian communities in service to your Lord. Get off your backsides and get moving!’” (Page 4)

“I am learning that we should feel the pressure of Paul’s texts—not to mention of his example—to stop talking quite so much about him and to go out and to act more like him.” (Page 4)

“We will move, then, from Paul to Pauline theology—from Paul’s dogmatics to a Pauline dogmatics¹²—in a way that has both historical integrity and contemporary impact.” (Page 9)

“Paul distributes the Shema between ‘God the Father’ and ‘the Lord Jesus,’ all the while holding on, somewhat extraordinarily, to the unity of God.” (Page 14)

Product Details

• Title: Pauline Dogmatics: The Triumph of God’s Love
• Author: Douglas A. Campbell
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2020
• Pages: 740
• Resource Type: Systematic Theology
• Topic: Pauline Studies

About Douglas A. Campbell

Douglas A. Campbell is a professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School. He has published six books on Paul including The Deliverance of God (2009), Paul: An Apostle's Journey (2018), and Pauline Dogmatics (2020). He co-directs two prison engagement programs at Duke.

Sample Pages from Pauline Dogmatics: The Triumph of God’s Love