Paul: An Outline of His Theology by Michael Wolter

Abstract

Reviewed by: Paul: An Outline of His Theology by Michael Wolter Julien Smith michael wolter, Paul: An Outline of His Theology (trans. Robert L. Brawley; Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2015). Pp. xv + 476. Paper $79.95. Seasoned scholars as well as serious students of Paul will heartily welcome this noteworthy book, an able translation of Wolter’s Paulus: Ein Grundriss seiner Theologie (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2011). The culmination of a life’s work from a pillar of Continental Pauline scholarship, it attempts neither to analyze Paul’s theology through the etic categories of systematic theology, nor to synthesize Paul’s occasional writings into a grand theological vision. Rather, the book endeavors to reconstruct historically the elements of Paul’s theology on the basis of his seven undisputed letters, ordering the discussion according to the organic and logical connections between such elements. The argument, sketched below, brings the reader full circle, from a Paul zealous for God’s people to a Paul convinced of God’s enduring love for Israel. Paul’s conversion and call represent neither a change of religion nor a solution to an existential crisis, but rather the replacement of his Pharisaic zeal for Torah as the exclusive marker of Israel’s sanctity with the conviction that God’s salvation had been made available to gentiles through Christ (chap. 2). As a result, Paul becomes convinced that the distinction between Jew and gentile is no longer relevant, in contradistinction to the paradigm of Jewish Christians. When his position is not recognized in the conflict over table fellowship at Antioch, the apostle strikes out on his own to proclaim the gospel to gentiles (chap. 3). This gospel is not only the proclamation of God’s salvation but also the power that brings about salvation, which requires faith (chap. 4). “Christ-faith,” W.’s translation of πίστις Χριστοῦ (understood as a genitive of quality), denotes assurance of God’s reality from the perspective of the “symbolic universe of faith” (p. 92) as well as an ethos that unites Pauline Christian communities and makes them distinct (chap. 5). Belief in the salvific efficacy of Jesus’s death, achievable only through “Christ-faith,” makes Christians “cognitive outsiders,” necessitating Paul’s theology of the cross, which serves as the “theological counterpoint against the disintegration of the community” (p. 120) (chap. 6). Although baptism functions both to create fellowship and mark conversion, [End Page 146] “Christ-faith” precedes baptism and endows it with the ability to bring about ontic transformation (chap. 7). The presence of the Holy Spirit, like the efficacy of baptism, follows from the reality of “Christ-faith,” conferring on gentiles the status of Israel, and on Christians generally the status of God’s son (chap. 8). Paul’s eschatology is retrospective, in that the “eschatic” intervention of God through Christ has already taken place; yet God’s eschatic salvation, “putting creation back into its divine order” (p. 210), is perceptible only through the mode of hope (chap. 9). Participatory terminology has no soteriological function in Paul’s theology, but rather fulfills various functions, one of which, albeit often neglected, is to indicate the symbolic universe in which God’s reality holds true (e.g., “in Christ”) (chap. 10). Worship constitutes Pauline congregations even as it transforms this symbolic universe into reality through the Lord’s Supper, a “reality symbol” that creates the unity it symbolizes (chap. 11). On the one hand, Paul’s ethical guidance endeavors to foster such unity through the principle of “egalitarian reciprocity,” while on the other, it aims to demonstrate the church’s distinctive identity; as Torah embodies Israel’s election, so Pauline paraenesis embodies “Christ-faith” (chap. 12). By insisting that God pronounces one righteous on the basis of this faith, “Paul thereby asserts that that which constitutes Christian identity, that is, ‘Christ-faith,’ also mediates belonging to the people of God elected in Abraham and bestows participation in God’s salvation” (p. 395; emphasis original) (chap. 13). Yet, if election through Abraham is now mediated through “Christ-faith,” then Israel’s present misery presents Paul with a problem defying full resolution; because the gospel only explains Israel’s present alienation and not its future salvation...