The new perspective critique of Luther : a response

dc.contributor.advisorVan Eck, Ernest
dc.contributor.emailbarteriksson@gmail.comen_ZA
dc.contributor.postgraduateEriksson, Bart Anders
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-09T14:30:16Z
dc.date.available2019-10-09T14:30:16Z
dc.date.created2019-04-03
dc.date.issued2018
dc.descriptionThesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThe New Perspective is a modern movement in New Testament scholarship which challenges Protestant interpretations of Paul’s writings. However, since the New Perspective refers to schools of thought present in other time periods and since it also repeats some ideas regarding Pauline interpretation found in the early church period or the Middle Ages it needs first to be viewed within the overall context of Christian interpretation of Paul throughout the ages. It used to be the case, state New Perspective scholars, that Protestants assumed that Paul was to Judaism as Luther was to Medieval Catholicism. Both men supposedly reacted against legalistic religions and championed grace-based faiths. However, now that E. P. Sanders in Paul and Palestinian Judaism, has demonstrated that Judaism is not a legalistic but a grace-based faith, New Perspectivists claim that Paul’s and Luther’s theologies and experiences were thus not parallel. Hence, supposedly Luther misunderstood Paul. Additionally, building on the work of Schweitzer, Wrede and others New Perspectivists challenge Protestant understandings of “justification.” In New Perspective thought, Paul uses the term “justification” primarily to describe how people, particularly Gentiles, join the church Christians without following Jewish ritual laws. “Justification,” then, does not describe how people “stay in” the covenant and receive salvation, as Protestants think. However, this study maintains that while New Perspectivists have some knowledge of Paul and Judaism, they are much less knowledgeable regarding Luther, Medieval Catholicism, and Luther’s reaction to it. Greater scrutiny of these latter areas reveals large difficulties with New Perspective arguments. In addition, a review of relevant passages from Paul’s letters demonstrates that Protestants have not misunderstood Paul’s use of the term “justification.” Many Pauline passages show that when Paul discusses justification he is also thinking about “staying in,” not just “getting in” the covenant. Furthermore, many scholars have now challenged Sanders’ interpretations of first-century Judaism. While Sanders has no doubt done a tremendous service to New Testament scholarship by demonstrating that there is more grace in Judaism than F. Weber, Bultmann, F. C. Baur and others had presumed, some scholars now state that Sanders has overstated the elements of grace in some facets of first-century Judaism. In addition, many scholars now agree that first-century Judaism was a diverse movement and cannot be accurately depicted by general descriptions. Sanders’ understanding of a “common Judaism,” present up until 70 AD have now been challenged. All of this, however, effects our interpretation of Paul. If first-century Judaism was diverse, then one would expect that Paul, in responding to Judaism would respond to both legalistic and grace-based interpretations of the Torah covenant. When examining Paul’s letters one sees that this is exactly what Paul does. His critique of Judaism is more multi-facetted than many people have understood. Although the New Perspective critique of Luther is not accurate and although most of its other key ideas can be challenged, the New Perspective has not been a wasted effort.en_ZA
dc.description.availabilityUnrestricteden_ZA
dc.description.degreePhDen_ZA
dc.description.departmentNew Testament Studiesen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationEriksson, BA 2018, The New Perspective Critique of Luther : a Response, PhD Thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/71769>en_ZA
dc.identifier.otherA2019en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/71769
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherUniversity of Pretoria
dc.rights© 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
dc.subjectUCTDen_ZA
dc.subjectNew perspective on Paulen_ZA
dc.subjectPaulinetheologyen_ZA
dc.subjectNew Testament theologyen_ZA
dc.subjectLuther and the New Perspectiveen_ZA
dc.subjectLuther's Theologyen_ZA
dc.subjectLutheran Theologyen_ZA
dc.subjectMartin Luther (1483–1546)en_ZA
dc.subject.otherTheology theses SDG-04
dc.subject.otherSDG-04: Quality education
dc.subject.otherTheology theses SDG-05
dc.subject.otherSDG-05: Gender equality
dc.subject.otherTheology theses SDG-10
dc.subject.otherSDG-10: Reduced inequalities
dc.subject.otherTheology theses SDG-16
dc.subject.otherSDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
dc.titleThe new perspective critique of Luther : a responseen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA

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