Search results for ""Author Neil Martin""

What would the world look like if the Old Perspective on Paul was right about justification, the New Perspective was right about Judaism, and the Radical New Perspective was right to note ongoing differences between Jewish and Gentile converts? Galatians Reconsidered is a compelling, practical study of Paul the Apostle’s writing that explores just that. Emphasising the central role played by regression in Paul’s argument on justification, Neil Martin examines the dichotomy between faith and works and how the apostle envisaged the differences in how Jews and Gentiles should interact with the Law. By re-establishing Galatians in its original Jewish and pagan context, Martin exposes the problems faced by Galatian churches and shows how they still speak to modern churches today. His insight not only helps us better appreciate Paul’s message but challenges us to put his wisdom into practice in our own church settings. Provocative and stimulating Galatians Reconsidered is a robust new look at the question of justification. It will leave you with a thorough knowledge of the merits and failings of both the old and new perspectives on Paul, as well as a broader understanding of the letter to the Galatians both in the context in which it was written and its continued relevance today.

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In the first scholarly treatment of the topic, Neil Martin argues that the regression language in Galatians holds the key to understanding Paul's perception of the underlying crisis. Repeated references to going backwards describe the reanimation of expectations intimately associated with the basic religious practices ( stoicheia) of his readers' pagan past. As the Galatians embraced the superficially-similar observances of Jewish Christianity, familiar practices were triggering the resumption of familiar modes of thought. With striking consequences for historic and contemporary debates about faith and works, the author finds a pagan misappropriation of Judaism, not Judaism itself, in the crosshairs of Paul's supposed anti-law polemic, uniting his warnings and commands in an integrated response to a pastoral emergency caused by the failure of the strong to accommodate the weakness of the weak.

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