The Quest for Paul's Gospel

by Douglas A. Campbell

Douglas Campbell gives a clear account of why much current description of Paul's theology, and of his gospel and of his theory of salvation, is so confused. After outlining the difficulties underlying much of the current debate he lays out some basic options that will greatly clarify the debate. He then engages with these options and shows how one offers far more promise than the others, sketching out some of its initial applications. Campbell then shows in more detail how another option -- the main alternative, and the main culprit in terms of many of our difficulties -- can be circumvented textually, in a responsible fashion. That is, we see how we could remove this option from Paul's text exegetically, and so reach greater clarity. Finally, he concludes with a 'road-map' of where future, more detailed, research into Paul needs to go if the foregoing strategy is to be carried out thoroughly. Campbell believes that by utilising this strategy Paul's gospel will be shown to be both cogent and constructive. This is volume 274 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2005

About the author

Douglas A. Campbell is a professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School. His main research interest is the life and theology of the apostle Paul, with particular reference to an understanding of salvation informed by apocalyptic as against justification or salvation-history. However, he is interested in methodological contributions to Paul's analysis from any disciplinary angle, ancient or modern, whether Greco-Roman epistolary and rhetorical theory, or insights into human networking and conflict-resolution discovered by sociologists.

His writings command the respect of scholars worldwide, including Framing Paul: An Epistolary Biography and The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul.

Reviews

[Nicholas Quient · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical Campbell: fascinating, insightful, somewhat infuriating, and more provocative than genrally helpful. Still, everything he writes is worth reading.

[Theron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this book leaves you with much to think about. It's a divisive book. I imagine three reactions. Perhaps most protestants ascribing to a strong conviction of what Campbell calls justification theory (JT throughout) will throw the book at the wall. And so dismiss much of his critiques. Others will agree with his conclusions but disagree with how he arrived at them. The easiest example is his position that Paul does not endorse Romans 1:18-3:20, but rather is ironically countering an alternative gospel similar to the Judaizers of Galatia. Third, others will agree with the conclusions and manner they are derived.

I took many things away from this book. First, historic theological readings of the Bible still greatly influence biblical scholarship, which imagines it can read the text outside of theological context or that theological assumptions hinder readings of the text. Second, Campbell mentions a litmus test of Pauline theology: contingency and coherence. The former captures the truth that Paul writes his letters for specific purposes to specific communities of gathered Christians. The second asks "how can we make sense of all his letters (disputed and undisputed) in light of their contingent occurrence?". Third, Paul's letters are rhetorical and persuasive. He writes always and only to Christian communities either to correct and admonish, or to encourage and protect, and sometimes both. Fourth, Campbell presents an honest and thorough interaction with Pauline sources. I don't fully endorse all of his conclusions, e.g. he finds Paul's ethics inconsistent like Galatians 3:28 neither male and female with the household codes, but I can now see that tension.

I look forward to reading more of Campbell's work with Paul alongside others.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book because I've seen some interesting references to Douglas Campbell's work and figured before digging into his monstrous The Deliverance of God I would get this earlier and shorter work to sort of get into his mindset. However, this was a poor choice on my part I think.

This work is a tad outdated by now (2013); at multiple points he mentions N.T. Wright's work but says it is largely inaccessible, because this book was published before Wright published much of his work on Paul. As such it does not engage much with any newer arguments and insights that have been made since.

Where Campbell shines here is his destruction of the typical Protestant Justification by Faith model of salvation in Paul. He lays some groundwork for his own position, which he dubs the PPME model (pneumatological-participatory-martyrological-eschatological), but only in bits and pieces (though, in my view, very good and promising pieces). His rereading of Romans as a diatribe is particularly fascinating and his interpretation of Galatians and reading the dikaio- terms in liberative terms are likewise things that gets one really thinking.


I look forward to reading DOG, because it is both much more recent, and because it seems to articulate his position more fully.