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Beginning from Jerusalem
The second volume in the magisterial Christianity in the Making trilogy , Beginning from Jerusalem covers the early formation of the Christian faith from 30 to 70 CE. After outlining the quest for the historical church (parallel to the quest for the historical Jesus) and reviewing the sources, James Dunn follows the course of the movement stemming from Jesus “beginning from Jerusalem.” Dunn opens with a close analysis of what can be said of the earliest Jerusalem community, the Hellenists, the mission of Peter, and the emergence of Paul. Then he focuses solely on Paul―the chronology of his life and mission, his understanding of his call as apostle, and the character of the churches that he founded. The third part traces the final days and literary legacies of the three principal figures of first-generation Paul, Peter, and James, the brother of Jesus. Each section includes detailed interaction with the vast wealth of secondary literature on the many subjects covered.
1370 pages, Hardcover
Published October 29, 2008
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About the author
James D.G. Dunn
130 books90 followersJames 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".
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".
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2023
This second volume, along with Jesus Remembered, is a must read for the student of the New Testament and early Christianity. While not as dynamic or engaging as Wright's Christian origins series, this systematic and historical study of the church from 30-70 is packed with information and quite readable to a wide range of audiences.
December 3, 2012
REVIEW AND CRITIQUE Dunn, James D. G. Beginning from Jerusalem. Christianity in the Making 2. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009.
After the first-volume Jesus Remembered, Dunn continues his project and quests for the “historical church” in the second-volume of Christianity in the Making, tracing what we can most likely know as historians from every conceivable source about the Christian church, from the first Easter to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, synthesizing the earlier scholarly works at his best.
The key questions in Dunn’s quest are two-fold: how to bridge the gap between Jesus tradition and the new face of Christian Church? And how did Christianity as a Jewish sect became a Gentile religion after Paul’s missionary works?
In the end of his book, Dunn offers an inconclusive outlook of his findings: The degree of disjunction between the mission of Jesus and the post-Easter gospel should not be exaggerated—the Jesus tradition was presented as gospel; Jesus as Messiah was an integral part of the Jesus tradition from the beginning. Convinced that Jesus rose from the dead, his followers renewed their idea of Jewish messiahship into a more exalted notion of risen Lord, but the formal references to Jesus’ deity were to await a later date.
The striking difference of the new Christian community as noted by Dunn was the vitality of the spiritual experience of the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon them, even to the non-Jews. Dunn’s portrait of the development of the historical church is not radically different from the picture directly drawn from the data of Acts and other letters in the NT. However Dunn does supply many explanations of the historical details in light of the background of Second Temple Judaism. For example, Dunn notes that communal nature of the “Messianic sect” was not so unlike Qumran as to be unbelievable.
Dunn thinks that Saul of Tarsus probably did persecute the early churches with a Phineas-like zeal, in hope of purifying Israel suitable for national restoration. His Damascus-road event was both a conversion and a commission, as he realized that the boundary markers of Israel could no longer be ethnic if Jesus was the risen Lord.
Critiques:
Dunn's historicism makes him keep a rationalist's distance from the spiritual and revelatory character of Christianity in explaining its historical origin. However Dunn does not reject the biblical data as sources for his historical study. He is also sensitive to the fact that E.P.Sanders’ thesis of “covenantal nomism” only represents the “Palestinian Judaism”, and his use of the notion of “Second Temple Judaism” has multifaceted variety incorporating the Hellenized Jews and the diaspora Judaism.
Dunn does not attempt to give unified picture of the historical as N. T. Wright did. Dunn’s basic premise is that Christianity emerged from within the matrix of the long-established Second Temple Judaism, but he is also sensitive to the Hellenistic influences in the social and urban life of early Christianity.
I feel that Dunn as one of the “third-questers” is a moderate historicist and much more careful in making high-claims of the authentic historical reality. His books are of good reference values for integrating current available studies.
After the first-volume Jesus Remembered, Dunn continues his project and quests for the “historical church” in the second-volume of Christianity in the Making, tracing what we can most likely know as historians from every conceivable source about the Christian church, from the first Easter to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, synthesizing the earlier scholarly works at his best.
The key questions in Dunn’s quest are two-fold: how to bridge the gap between Jesus tradition and the new face of Christian Church? And how did Christianity as a Jewish sect became a Gentile religion after Paul’s missionary works?
In the end of his book, Dunn offers an inconclusive outlook of his findings: The degree of disjunction between the mission of Jesus and the post-Easter gospel should not be exaggerated—the Jesus tradition was presented as gospel; Jesus as Messiah was an integral part of the Jesus tradition from the beginning. Convinced that Jesus rose from the dead, his followers renewed their idea of Jewish messiahship into a more exalted notion of risen Lord, but the formal references to Jesus’ deity were to await a later date.
The striking difference of the new Christian community as noted by Dunn was the vitality of the spiritual experience of the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon them, even to the non-Jews. Dunn’s portrait of the development of the historical church is not radically different from the picture directly drawn from the data of Acts and other letters in the NT. However Dunn does supply many explanations of the historical details in light of the background of Second Temple Judaism. For example, Dunn notes that communal nature of the “Messianic sect” was not so unlike Qumran as to be unbelievable.
Dunn thinks that Saul of Tarsus probably did persecute the early churches with a Phineas-like zeal, in hope of purifying Israel suitable for national restoration. His Damascus-road event was both a conversion and a commission, as he realized that the boundary markers of Israel could no longer be ethnic if Jesus was the risen Lord.
Critiques:
Dunn's historicism makes him keep a rationalist's distance from the spiritual and revelatory character of Christianity in explaining its historical origin. However Dunn does not reject the biblical data as sources for his historical study. He is also sensitive to the fact that E.P.Sanders’ thesis of “covenantal nomism” only represents the “Palestinian Judaism”, and his use of the notion of “Second Temple Judaism” has multifaceted variety incorporating the Hellenized Jews and the diaspora Judaism.
Dunn does not attempt to give unified picture of the historical as N. T. Wright did. Dunn’s basic premise is that Christianity emerged from within the matrix of the long-established Second Temple Judaism, but he is also sensitive to the Hellenistic influences in the social and urban life of early Christianity.
I feel that Dunn as one of the “third-questers” is a moderate historicist and much more careful in making high-claims of the authentic historical reality. His books are of good reference values for integrating current available studies.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews