Journal

NT Wright on Paul's reworking of Jewish theology

Posted on March 4th, 2005, in the evening

I've been at City Church in Newcastle all day, listening to NT Wright lecturing on Paul. The three sessions covered monotheism, election and eschatology, identified as the three mains themes in Jewish theology. We looked in brief overview at how Paul reworks those themes around the Messiah (and around the Holy Spirit, but the main emphasis today was on Paul's Christology).

Regular readers will have gathered by now that I'm a fan of NT Wright's thinking, so it will be no surprise to hear that I found the day thoroughly stimulating.

A particularly beautiful observation I noted from the session on monotheism was of Paul(a devout Jew, let's not forget)'s reading of Christ into the 'Shema' prayer ("Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One") in 1 Corinthians 8.6:

Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

1 Corinthians 8.6, NRSV