Monday, November 9, 2009

Scot McKnight and Michael Gorman on Campbell's Deliverance of God

Douglas Campbell's new massive tome on Paul and justification, The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul , has been creating quite the stir in the biblioblogosphere, which I am certain will make it a sell-out item at SBL.

First, Michael Gorman is doing bite-size reviews on it over at his blog Cross Talk. This has been followed by Scot McKnight who concludes:

The book is more than 1200 pages long. It would be a fantastic vacation read or summer read for pastors; it is a must for professors and I believe should be read by seminary students as a primary text on Paul -- whether one agrees with it or not. What Campbell calls the Justification Theory is deeply embedded in the Protestant consciousness; this sort of book reveals that consciousness and provides readers an opportunity to check whether it is the best reading or not.

I'm really curious as to the readability of this book; I remember trying to slog through his much shorter The Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy and having to reread sections over and again to make heads or tails of what Campbell was attempting to convey. Nevertheless, I think it will still become a must read for any students of Paul. 1,200 pages + is nothing to take lightly!

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