Galatians. Commentaries for Christian Formation, N T Wright, Eerdmans, 2021. 420pp, (Currently available approx. £23)
Reviewing the first volume of a new commentary series forces two questions. Do we need another commentary series in a market awash with options? If so, what makes this new series distinctive enough to contribute something new, significant and worth the price?
Eerdmans explain at the outset why they think this series will make a valuable and distinctive contribution.
“Commentaries for Christian Formation interpret Scripture in ways aimed at ordering reader’s lives and worship in imitation of Christ, informing their understanding of God, and animating their participation in the church’s global mission with a deepened sense of calling.”
Some commentary series on the New Testament are historical-critical, intentionally academic in style, and strictly exegetical in content, like the International Critical Commentary, Yale Anchor Commentary and the New International Greek Testament Commentary. Others are mid-range and combine scholarly exegesis with more accessible exposition, like the New International Commentary on the New Testament and the Paideia series.
Then there are those that aim at application, though still grounded in scholarly engagement with the text, such as New International Version Application Commentary and the Story of God Commentary.
A recently burgeoning field is theological commentary in which attempts are made to explore and expound the theological content of the text, with more or less attention to detailed exegetical foundations. The Two Horizons Commentary, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible and Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible are now well established series in this genre.
Each of these series has their Editor’s or Publisher’s preface indicating the level of academic engagement and critical style, the target readership and the justification for their particular series in an admittedly (over) crowded field. Having read some of those prefaces again, and several review essays on recent commentary activity, it would seem this new series while combining several of these approaches, does so on the way to fulfilling its more specific goal and authors’ remit.
Critical scholarship, exegetical details of grammar, syntax, literary and lexical analysis, historical and social contextual study, are all drawn together in the service of a theological and formative explication of the text. “Exegesis is itself a way of doing theology”, the publishers claim. Italics for emphasis is in the original. So this new series aims at a partial reversal of the aims in other series. It isn’t so much what the commentator does with the text, as what the text does to the commentator / reader. Information is put into the service of formation, for the purposes of personal transformation as the reader engages with, and is engaged by, the sacred text.
So how well does this inaugural volume of N T Wright fulfil those prefatory promises? “Paul wrote Galatians out of political and theological concerns.”(6) The political issue is, who should be reckoned as part of the new community of Jesus Messiah? To answer this, Wright goes through what is now a familiar exposition of his own ‘fresh perspective’ on Paul, compared with the ‘new perspective’ (now showing its age) and ‘the old perspective’ which many continue to hold as the most valid and viable interpretation of Paul.
Part two of this review will try to answer that question – I'll post it tomorrow.
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