New Testament Theology: An Introduction

by James D.G. Dunn

In this volume in the Library of Biblical Theology series, James D.G. Dunn ranges widely across the literature of the New Testament to describe the essential elements of the early church’s belief and practice. Eschatology, grace, law and gospel, discipleship, Israel and the church, faith and works, and most especially incarnation, atonement, and resurrection; Dunn places these and other themes in conversation with the contemporary church’s work of understanding its faith and life in relation to God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies

232 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

James D. G. ("Jimmy") Dunn (born 1939) was for many years the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the Department of Theology at the University of Durham. Since his retirement he has been made Emeritus Lightfoot Professor. He is a leading British New Testament scholar, broadly in the Protestant tradition. 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.

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, the leading international body for New Testament study. Only three other British scholars had been made President in the preceding 25 years.

In 2005 a festschrift was published dedicated to Dunn, comprising articles by 27 New Testament scholars, examining early Christian communities and their beliefs about the Holy Spirit. (edited by Graham N. Stanton, Bruce W. Longenecker & Stephen Barton (2004). The Holy Spirit and Christian origins: essays in honor of James D. G. Dunn. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. ISBN 0-8028-2822-1.)

Dunn has taken up E. P. 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".

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written from a liberal Protestant perspective and leverages the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation to construct a New Testament theology. What distinguishes the author's method from others is the use of the Old Testament, not in typical Christian theological fashion, reading backwards the New into the Old Testament, but rather taking the position that the Old Testament was Scripture for the New Testament writers and reading forwards into the New. The book itself deals with four topics: Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and ethics (eschatology is mixed in to the soteriology an ethics sections).

This book will be tremendously dissatisfying to evangelicals and mainstream Catholics because it uses the historical-critical method, rather than constructing a New Testament theology from dogmatic theology backwards to a biblical theology. Dunn treats theology (using the term theologizing) as a historical process and locates the New Testament writers in historical context and the theologies of Second Temple Judaism and the factionalism of the time. But for the typical Anglican, liberal Catholic, or liberal Presbyterian it is an informative read and constructively rather than destructively deploys mainstream academic biblical scholarship. My one complaint is that stylistically Dunn too frequently deploys rhetorical questions. I would prefer a provocative statement rather than leaving a question in its place.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful outline of the way Dunn thinks NT Theology can be done. This will not likely serve well as a stand alone text for a class (unless this is a church class) but the contours Dunn outline's here are extremely promising. Book includes a generous and thorough selective bibliography (which is helpful for students and scholars). On another note, I would love if the format of the book had footnotes rather than endnotes. This is a personal preference.