Paul

In Fresh Perspective

By: N. T. Wright

Narrated by: Simon Vance

For me," says N.T.Wright, "there has been no more stimulating exercise, for the mind, the heart, the imagination and the spirit, than trying to think Paul's thoughts after him and constantly to be stirred up to fresh glimpses of God's ways and purposes with the world and with us strange human creatures."

Wright's accessible new volume, built on his Cambridge University Hulsean Lectures of 2004, takes a fresh look at Paul in light of recent understandings of his Jewish roots, his attitude toward the Roman Empire, and his unique reframing of Jewish symbols in relation to his experience of the risen Christ. Then Wright attempts a short systematic account of the main theological contours of Paul's thought and its pertinence for the church today.

©2009 N.T. Wright (P)2009 christianaudio.com

Powerful and concise

This book by Wright is one of the most, if not the most, powerful yet condensed readings of the apostle Paul. In it Wright proposes new categories for a theology of Paul’s letters built around a reworking of monotheism, election and eschatology. Not by Wright but by Paul. For those who would take this to heart, everything in those letters becomes more and more clear and comprehensible when viewed within these reworked categories. The narration is also superb.

chapters mistaged, otherwise great!

I've read a chunk of Wright's Jesus stuff, including his academic stuff. This book was really a really good"big picture" book for his Pauline stuff. I also like to narrators accent, very appropriate.. the only thing was that the book Is 8 chapters, but this is divided into 7 that aren't even close to where the actual chapters are..

Subtle, difficult in places and worth it

Book great. Narrator needs to brush up on pronunciation of Hebrew words. Doesn’t cut it to have a snotty English academic accent and mispronounce common Hebrew words from the Bible.

Concise summary of Wright on Paul

I’ve read a fair amount of Wright’s work, both academic and popular. This is the best, most concise summary I’ve read of his Pauline thought. It isn’t overly technical, but it helps to have a bit of the background knowledge about the issues and arguments before diving in. Of course, for the full treatment of this topic, the is no substitute for Paul and the Faithfulness of God.

Refreshing

Start here if you're new to NT Wright, refreshing take on Paul and the biblical story.

Acessing Recent Scholarship on Paul

Where does Paul rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Audio books are great means of accessing information. This is a technical book on that deals with the search for the historic Paul and attempts to reframe Paul away from the superational deconstruction that led to the idea that Paul was the founder of Christianity and not Jesus. N.T. Wright is a reputable scholar and his material is very accessible and understandable for those wanting an introduction in this NT issue.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

n/a

What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great voice and pace

Book version of lecture

This is a formal academic lecture in book form. I found it pretty straightforward, but I’ve read his stuff before.

I particularly like his point that apocalyptic does not mean dualist in Paul.

Lots of good nuggets, but not a tome - therefore a good audiobook.

Second time around

Any additional comments?

When I originally purchased this audiobook and gave it a listen, I couldn't follow it at all, for I was completely alien to the context, the scholars debates and the different perspectives out there. Without a basic awareness of these things, N.T Wrights writings on Paul, didn't have any shelf to rest on, it was all Greek to me. But now several years later, having become a little more familiar with the issues, I listened to the book again and found it really interesting, so good in fact, that I may listen to it again and take notes.This work compilation of of lectures on matters of what Wright expounds on much more elsewhere, some of Wrights insights are subtle; that don't necessarily stick out or seem ground-breaking on the surface, even now I can follow him, if I am not paying close attention, what he writes brush right past me. But I have found when I do truly listen to what he is saying, Wright often is illuminating and does have some fresh perspectives

exceptional, but very advanced and philosophical

I give it 5+ stars for the quality of the content but 4 stars here for accessibility, given its complexity. this is not for the casual Christian. While I come from a different Christian denomination with some differences in doctrinal understanding of the scriptures compared to wright, i enjoy the deepness in thought and the care he takes on the implications of the doctrinal stances we all take. I picked up this book expecting to get an even deeper dive into doctrine than his other books, and that's what you'll get here, as an understatement! I really enjoyed this book, but it is not for the theological novice. The vocabulary used, the assumption of previous knowledge of the historical setting and sociopolitical background is on par with someone with at least a few years of focused University-level study of the Bible and 1st century near-eastern and Mediterranean history. I can easily follow most theological books listening to them on 2x speed while biking to work, but I had to slow this one down and follow along in the printed book itself!

Chapter Boundaries Are Garbage (urgh!)

Hey there fine people! Here is the actual cue data, fueled with coffee.

The TOC mentions only seven chapters. In fact, there are eight. And all of the timecodes are meaningless.

Please keep in mind that these timecodes *include* the 2.5-second header that has the guy declaring, "This is Audible (and our Table Of Contents is totally mental)".

0:00:00 Introduction
0:10:40 Part 1: Themes; Chapter 1: 1) Paul's World + Paul's Legacy
0:39:36 2) Fighting Over Paul's Legacy: Perspectives Old, New, And Different
0:59:04 Chapter 2: Creation And Covenant 1) In The Old Testament
1:13:33 2) Three Central Passages
1:15:04 a) Colossians 1:15-20
1:18:16 b) 1 Corinthians 15
1:21:24 c) Romans 1-11
1:36:40 3) Evil And Grace; Plight And Solution
1:46:04 4) Conclusion
1:49:56 Chapter 3: Messiah And Apocalyptic 1) Introduction
1:56:36 2) Jesus As Messiah In Paul
2:17:07 3) Apocalyptic In Paul
2:40:33 Chapter 4: Gospel And Empire 1) Introduction
2:50:04 2) Caesar's Empire And Its Ideology
2:57:29 3) Jewish Critique Of Pagan Empire
3:07:43 4) Paul's Counter-Imperial Theology
3:35:09 5) Conclusion
3:36:50 Part 2: Structures; Chapter 5: Rethinking God 1) Introduction
3:44:55 2) Monotheism
3:57:33 3) Monotheism And Christology
4:15:07 4) Monotheism And The Spirit
4:29:20 5) Scriptural Roots, Pagan Targets, Practical Work
4:42:59 6) Conclusion
4:43:55 Chapter 6: Reworking God's People 1) Introduction
4:45:23 2) Election
4:51:07 3) Election Reshaped Around Jesus
5:25:04 4) Election Reworked Around The Spirit
5:30:54 5) Redefinition Of Election Rooted In Scripture
5:39:00 6) Conclusion
5:41:42 Chapter 7: Reimagining God's Future 1) Introduction
5:41:42 2) Jewish Eschatology In The First Century
5:56:24 3) Eschatology Reimagined Around The Messiah
6:22:11 4) Eschatology Reimagined Around The Spirit
6:37:08 5) Eschatology In Context
6:43:37 6) Conclusion
6:45:48 Chapter 8: Jesus, Paul, And The Task Of The Church 1) Introduction
6:46:46 2) Jesus And Paul
7:05:02 3) The Work Of An Apostle
7:30:22 4) Conclusion
7:41:03 Closing Credits

Please forgive any typos. I have the jitters, because: coffee.