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Guy Waters lays out the theological, historical, and cultural antecedents to the New Perspective and examines its leading proponents. He offers a trenchant critique of their work and warns us of problems that the New Perspective may pose within the Church.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A helpful introduction to the issues of the NPP et al.,
By
This review is from: Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul: A Review and Response (Paperback)
Guy Waters has done an admirable job of fairly representing the views of the major advocates of the New Perspectives on Paul (NPP). An example of his fairness is seen in the title itself, which describes the views as "Perspectives" and not simply one monolithic viewpoint. While there are certainly connecting points between Stendhal (arguably the father of the NPP), Sanders, Dunn, and Wright, Waters points out the areas in which they do not agree. There's a good deal of nuance in this book, but not so much as to bog it down in semantical jargon and hairsplitting details. The initial section of the book is an historical overview of the develpoment of the NPP, laying the roots at the foot of the "higher critical" schools of the late 1900's and the early 20th century. This aspect of his thesis is probably the most arguable, since it involves guessing at the motivation of the writers involved. Less controversial, is his illustrating the reaction against the earlier anti-Jewish writings of the pre-war II theological writers. Waters graciously points out that the NPP advocates are reacting against the errant argument of a purely legalistic/Pelagian Second Temple Judaism that was presented by these pre-WWII writers. Stendhal up to Wright have appropriately pointed out that Second Temple Judaism was a synergistic religion and semi-Pelagian, contra the earlier writers, which (mis)represented Judaism as being nothing more than a crass works-righteousness religion. Modern NT scholarship and Second Temple Jewish scholarship has been improved by their work in this regard. Yet even with this said, the weakness exists in their research of making Second Temple Judaism essentially no different than NT teachings on justification/salvation. Overall, Waters does a decent job of advocating his viewpoint (the traditional Reformed/Lutheran perspective on Paul's teachings on justification), while representing the NPP views fairly, although he does occasionally give a dig during the historical overview. It's in the second half of the book that Waters provides the critique of the NPP. Since this part of the book is mainly concerned with an exegetical defense of the traditional Reformed/Lutheran view of Paul, it's necessarily a bit more technical. But it's well worth the effort to plow through it. It is by far the strongest part of the book. The one weakness the book has is in its occasional tendency to take a statement made by an antagonist and seeing it in its worst possible light. Thankfully, he's not often guilty of this, but it does detract from the overall tenor. Of course, the advocates of the NPP are also guilty of that tendency themselves, so there's plenty of blame to go around! (that behavior runs rampant in conservative Reformed circles!)The book ends with an analysis of Norman Shepherd's views and that of the AAPC, which are of particular interest to me, since I'm indirectly personally connected to Shepherd. So I was particularly concerned to see how Waters dealt with him. Essentially, Waters thesis is that these various writers are guilty (in slightly different, but essentially similar ways), whether unknowingly or intentionally, of conflating the doctrines of justification with sanctification, thus leading to a view that's essentially that of Rome. While the writers in question (esp. Wright) are admirably concerned with ecumenical concerns, and with interfaith dialogue (esp. with Judaism), this should not allow us to dismiss proper exegetical analysis of the Scriptures in a proper historical context. That's the main beef Waters has with them. And in that I agree.
8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The New Perspective Heresy Exposed,
This review is from: Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul: A Review and Response (Paperback)
This book is a scholarly conservative reformed refutation of the "New Perspective on Paul scholarship." As it concerns the central theme of the gospel, Justification by faith alone, this book clearly describes how the New Perspective has deviated from orthodoxy.Guy Prentiss Waters studied under one of the most popular proponents of the New Perspective, E.P Sanders. In this book, Waters as a conservative reformed scholar, claims that E.P Sanders confided in him saying that if Ephesians is to be considered a Pauline letter, then the entire scholarship of the new perspective is erroneous. Ephesians Ch. 2, and Titus expose the lie of the New Perspective concerning Justification. Clearly the New Perspective has a glass jaw. The new Perspective on Paul is an utterly retarded paradigm by which to read the Apostle Paul, for it interprets Pual's writtings through the prism of a wrong historical interpretation of 1st century Judaism. This false prism then yields a faulty interpretation of the mighty doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone.
15 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First stop for understanding the New Pauline Perspective,
By
This review is from: Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul: A Review and Response (Paperback)
Guy Waters is an exceptional scholar and theologian. His overview of the history of interpretation that has led to the new perspectives on Paul is clear as it is thorough. Guy Waters then goes on to present the New Pauline Perspectives as objectively and sensitively as possible. After three quarters of the book given to delineation of NPP, Dr. Waters gets to the critique of these perspectives/doctrines and their effect/affect upon the Protestant Evangelical church.Dr. Waters writes with tremendous humility and balance. His presentation is very fair to the NPP scholars. Even when Guy Waters has devastating evidence against New Pauline scholarship he doesn't blow the trumpet, but relates it quietly so that the evidence speaks for itself. Dr. Waters also notes where NPP scholarship HAS been constructive and helpful. In my opinion, this is the first book one should read when embarking upon the journey to understand the NPP movement. God bless, --Jeffrey
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