Wright, N. T. Paul: A Biography. San Francisco: Harper
One, 2018.
Paul is one of the few individuals
to have changed the course of human history. His missionary travels and
writings impacted the first century AD in ways that are no less significant
today. This Pharisees turned Apostle became the catalyst for a messianic movement
that took control of Europe, the ancient near east, and north Africa. But how
did Paul achieve such success? Why did his message change societies even after
his death? And what was the message that Paul proclaimed?
There
is no better person to answer these questions than N.T. Wright. As a minister
and academic, Wright has spent nearly fifty years studying the life and
writings of the Apostle Paul. Few people in modern academia have developed the
insight and ability to expound on the life of Paul like Wright. His book is not
only academically thorough but personally inspiring. I’ve been challenged by
Wright’s ideas before, but Paul: A
Biography caused me to rethink Paul as a historical figure, his new
testament writings, and my own ministry as a traveling missionary and church
planter. After reading this book, I realized that my ideas of Paul and his
ministry were simplistic at best. In my effort to apply a Pauline model to
church planting in Africa, I reduced Paul’s ministry to a simple formula. By
ignoring the nuances of Paul’s ministry, I arrived at a false understanding of
Paul himself and his strategies as a missionary. With Wright as my guide, I
followed Paul, trying to see him from a first-century Jewish perspective; while
asking myself, what did Paul think he was trying to accomplish?
Paul
achieved success in the Roman world because of the message he preached. Paul
proclaimed salvation through Jesus as messiah of the world. This contrasted
with the Jewish ideas of messiah and the Greco-Roman ideas of salvation. Jews
of the first century looked for a Messiah that would solve their primary
perceived problem–political subjection. They looked for a messiah who would
restore the favor of God upon their nation, resulting in political and economic
independence. The Jewish religious leaders believed that if they could apply
the Law of Moses properly, then their God would be free to promote them to the dominant position of power in the ancient near east. If their religion was done
correctly, the Kingdom of God would finally be established, and Jerusalem would
be its capital.
The
Greco-Roman world sought salvation in personal security and provision. Caesar
promised salvation for the here-and-now. What comes after is too uncertain to
worry about. The Roman Empire provided its subjects with safety and comforts
unknown in previous generations. For the first time in history, large scale
farming, international trade, social mobility, and secure travel were commonplace. Salvation to the Roman had come in the form of personal and carnal freedoms.
Paul,
and the other Apostles, preached the message that Israel’s God had sent his son
as Messiah of the whole world. Through Jesus, the fullness of eternal salvation
is offered to all nations. Paul’s message was met with disbelief by the Jews,
who wanted to maintain religious superiority over the Greeks; and by the
Greeks, who refused to believe that eternal salvation existed and that it could
come through a suffering savior. For me, Wright brings varying interpretations
of Paul’s Jesus-message into focus and shows that Paul contextualized not only
theology but philosophy as well.
Wright
firmly roots Paul in his Jewish traditions and training. The popular perception
is that Paul was primarily a Hellenist moving throughout the Roman world-changing contexts with ease. Wright challenges this idea by showing that at his
core Paul was a Jew. His worldview expanded but never changed: his alliances
shift, but not his religion. Paul is a diaspora Jew who looks at the world
through the lens he received from his mentor Gamaliel. Ironically, it’s because
of his Jewish worldview that he recognizes Jesus as Messiah and follows
Israel’s God in the tradition of Elijah and Phineas. Paul sees no conflict in
being fully Jewish and fully following Jesus. Paul believes devotion to Jesus-Messiah
is the truest course for every Jew. To be truly Jewish is to follow the Messiah
foretold by prophets.
Wright’s
idea that Paul was never converted from one religion to another, challenged me
deeply. I’d never considered Paul in light of his Jewish context. My lack of
understanding fooled me into believing Paul to be too much like me. Seeing Paul
as the Pharisee of Pharisees, never moving away from his devotion to Israel’s
God, repositions Paul’s writings for me theologically and philosophically.
Throughout
Paul’s writings, he continually corrects people’s way of thinking (philosophy) about
God, not simply what (theology) people think about God. This exposed a failure
in my own missiology. Too often missionaries focus on making sure that people
affirm right theology with little consideration to how right theology is
developed. People can affirm right things for the wrong reason. Without knowing
how to arrive at right theology people are at the mercy of whatever theology
offers the greatest personal benefit. Paul does not take right thinking for granted.
He deals with churches from diverse cultural contexts. He knows members come to
the Body of Christ with their previous ways of thinking. This is most clearly
seen in Acts 15. Paul sees the mistakes other leaders were making. The Law
reflects good theology, but the Judaizes application of the Law reflects bad
philosophy. Wright points out how Paul tells people this is what you should
believe and this is how you should arrive at that belief.
Lastly,
Paul’s understanding of the Kingdom of God is remarkably different from my own
interpretation. If asked the question, What is the ultimate goal of existence?,
Paul would say the “establishment of the Kingdom of God”; I would say “going to
heaven.” The direction of my salvation is escape from guilt and discomfort. The
direction of Paul’s salvation is redemption of all creation. This flaw in my
philosophy caused confusion in my missiology. While in South Sudan, I was
confused why our heaven-based salvation was so unappealing to the Dinka of Bar
al-Gizzal. My gospel message was, basically, believe in Jesus and you get to go
to heaven when you die. For the Dinka, this made no sense. They were not
concerned with an afterlife. Their culture provided a story of transference of
one’s life essence through paternal procreation. The perseveration of
individual identity beyond the grave seemed outlandish and unnecessary. I can’t
help but ask myself what would’ve been the effect if I had proclaimed the
direction of salvation as the coming of the Kingdom God who would repair all
things to perfection.
Thanks to Wright, I now
proclaim salvation as the coming of the Kingdom of God in the life of the
individual with the goal of all creation being brought under the rule of the
creator God. To the Jews (and Paul) heaven was a temporary state where
believers are absent from the body, but present with the Lord (I Corinthian
5:8), but this was not the end of salvation. Salvation leads to participation
in establishing the new heaven and new earth. To many, this idea is far more appealing than my western projections of “resting in peace.” The value of
Wright’s book is found in its accuracy in presenting Paul, the devout Jew,
always zealous to love and obey Israel’s God. The usefulness of Paul: A Biography is found in its
thorough analysis of each step of Paul’s ministry and theology. I recommend
this book to any serious student of the New Testament and to every missionary
trying to follow the Apostle’s footsteps, as he followed Christ.
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