Book Reviews
Approaches to Paul: A Student's Guide to Recent Scholarship
Magnus Zetterholm
(Fortress Press), 2009
Reviewed by Adam Gregerman
While study of Paul's letters remains one of the most vibrant and interesting areas of New Testament scholarship, it is also one of the murkiest and most difficult. Perhaps no other topic has generated as much controversy and disagreement as Paul's views of Judaism and the Torah. E. P. Sanders' magisterial work, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), represents a major turning point. His re-interpretation of Jewish sources contemporaneous with Paul, as well as Paul's own writings, undermined the traditional, widespread view that Paul forcefully broke with Judaism because he rejected Jewish works-righteousness and over-punctiliousness toward the Law. This so-called "New Perspective" (which, Sanders admitted, partly rested on earlier but less well known scholarship) made it possible to see Paul within the world of first century Judaism. Paul and Judaism need not be seen as diametrically opposed, nor should particularistic Judaism be seen as simply the negative foil to Pauline (and Christian) universalism, a common view especially among Christian New Testament scholars. This important work has sparked an explosion of Pauline scholarship over the last few decades, though the quantity can be daunting even to scholars.
Zetterholm's book is a sure (if sometimes awkwardly written) guide to this scholarship. It pivots around Sanders' work. He offers a useful chronological survey of New Testament scholarship on Paul and Judaism, beginning with the early nineteenth century and continuing through to recent works. He astutely critiques much of what preceded Sanders (e.g., F. Weber, R. Bultmann, G. Bornkamm), which provides a rich context for appreciating what Sanders and others (e.g., K. Stendahl, H. Raisanen) achieved. Their arguments for the proper study of Paul shape the agenda of all that follows. This includes those who build on their insights (e.g., J. Dunn, N. T. Wright, L. Gaston, M. Nanos) and those who resist them while defending the traditional, typically Lutheran perspectives (e.g., F. Thielman, A. Das, S. Gathercole). Finally, he summarizes the works of recent scholars who have begun to move beyond what he calls "the Paul-Judaism problem" (p. 195). They employ post-colonial methodologies (e.g., N. Elliott), feminist methodologies (e.g., K. Ehrensperger), and insights from gender studies (e.g., D. Lopez). This final section on recent scholarship represents somewhat of a break with what came before, but is nonetheless useful in a book surveying scholarly approaches to Paul. While it would have been helpful if Zetterholm had been more critical in his surveys, especially of the most recent works, for those who are already familiar with Paul's letters, Zetterholm's work is a welcome companion to a complex and confounding topic.
