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  3. New Testament Theology

This series, now complete, provides a programmatic survey of the individual writings of the New Testament. It aims to remedy the deficiency of available published material. New Testament specialists write at greater length than is usually possible in the introductions to commentaries or as part of other New Testament theologies, and explore the theological themes and issues of their chosen books without being tied to a commentary format, or to a thematic structure drawn from elsewhere.

  • General Editors: James D. G. Dunn, University of Durham

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14 results in New Testament Theology

The Theology of the Book of Revelation
  • Richard Bauckham
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    04 March 1993
  • The Book of Revelation is a work of profound theology. But its literary form makes it impenetrable to many modern readers and open to all kinds of misinterpretations. Richard Bauckham explains how the book's imagery conveyed meaning in its original context and how the book's theology is inseparable from its literary structure and composition. Revelation is seen to offer not an esoteric and encoded forecast of historical events but rather a theocentric vision of the coming of God's universal kingdom, contextualised in the late first-century world dominated by Roman power and ideology. It calls on Christians to confront the political idolatries of the time and to participate in God's purpose of gathering all the nations into his kingdom. Once Revelation is properly grounded in its original context it is seen to transcend that context and speak to the contemporary church. This study concludes by highlighting Revelation's continuing relevance for today.

The Theology of the Gospel of Luke
  • Joel B. Green
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    20 April 1995
  • The Gospel of Luke, often mined for information about the life of Jesus, is also one of the earliest Christian examples of narrative theology. Unlike some writers of New Testament books, Luke has engaged in the theological task by shaping a narrative representation of the coming and mission of Jesus. In doing so, he goes to great lengths to ground the work of Jesus in the continuing story of God's redemptive plan, especially witnessed in the Scriptures, and he also emphasises the ongoing character of that story, with the result that Luke's audience is challenged to discern the purpose of God in order that they may embrace it and order their lives around it. This exploration of the way in which Luke accomplishes his theological task in the first century is both informative and illuminating for contemporary readers seeking approaches to cultural criticism and constructive theology today.

The Theology of the Acts of the Apostles
  • Jacob Jervell
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    16 May 1996
  • Who are the people of God? Luke's purposes in the Acts of the Apostles are to identify the church, to establish the legitimacy of its gospel and to demonstrate that God was an active force in history. He wanted to show that the communities of Jewish and Gentile Christians are the true heirs of God's promises to Israel. He gives the history of the early church from the last decades of the first century as the communities become separated from their Jewish origins, and Paul plays the lead role. Acts offers an apologetic for the mixed mission of the church: to Jews and Gentiles. Luke was an eyewitness to some of what he reports, but his authorship and views have been questioned. This is a theological interpretation of the history of the church within history: Luke is an artist, a narrator rather than a systematic theologian, but writes about the roles of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, and of the church.

The Theology of Paul's Letter to the Galatians
  • James D. G. Dunn
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    09 September 1993
  • Paul's Letter to the Galatians is one of the fiercest and most polemical writings in the Bible. That is what makes it, for the author of this study, such an exciting document to deal with. It emerges from the early days of a vigorous new movement (Christianity), when basic principles were first being formulated, and when the whole character of the movement was at stake. In the pages of Galatians we witness fundamental features of Christian theology taking shape before our eyes, where the living heart of Paul's gospel is encountered. For James D. G. Dunn there is an elemental quality about the letter, to which those tired of compromising half-truths are drawn when they feel the impulse to return to first principles. This book, which benefits from this perspective on Paul, explains more clearly than hitherto both the issues which confronted Paul and the powerful theological arguments he brought to bear in response, and casts light on a document still capable of shaping lives and theology today.

The Theology of the Johannine Epistles
  • Judith M. Lieu
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    31 May 1991
  • The Johannine Epistles have long been recognised as contributing a vital element to the theology of the New Testament. Usually it is to the Gospel that the reader turns first in order to explore that contribution; the First Epistle is treated as a supplement, while 2 and 3 John - on account of their brevity - receive little attention. This book allows the Epistles to speak for themselves, and shows that they sound a distinctive note within Johannine theology, in particular, and the thought of the New Testament, in general. Dr Lieu carefully outlines their most important theological themes (comprising, for example, tensions-in-unity between confidence and imperative, individual and community, and faith and tradition) which - when understood in their original setting - are seen to have rich potential for the continuing theology of the Church. By focusing on the Johannine Epistles in their proper context and in their own right, the author of this book thus provides a timely reassessment of the substantial theological contribution they have to make.

The Theology of Paul's Letter to the Romans
  • Klaus Haacker
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    27 November 2003
  • Klaus Haacker, a respected expert on Paul's writings, presents a compelling introduction to the theology of the Letter to the Romans. This volume completes Cambridge's successful New Testament Theology series. In keeping with the series, it explores the distinctive ideas and issues of the Epistle at greater length than is possible in commentaries or theological dictionaries. Professor Haacker focuses on themes such as righteousness, suffering and hope and the mystery of Israel in the age of the gospel. Engaging with Paul's rhetoric strategy, he shows how both ancient Rome and the spiritual heritage of Israel provide contexts for the Letter and help us to understand its message to the original readers and its abiding impact on Christianity. The book will be of interest to teachers, pastors, and students of theology and the New Testament.

The Theology of the Shorter Pauline Letters
  • Karl P. Donfried, I. Howard Marshall
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    09 September 1993
  • This book breaks new ground in offering an exposition of the theological message of the Shorter Pauline Letters. Karl P. Donfried expounds the theology of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, examining the cultural setting of these letters and the particular milieu in which their distinctive themes took shape. He shows that the notion of election is a key theme in the Thessalonian correspondence, while both letters have important things to say to people in our own day about Christ, about forgiveness, and about a sanctifying God who pours out his Spirit. I. Howard Marshall's study of Philippians brings out especially the understanding of the theological basis of the Christian life which underlies the letter, while his discussion of Philemon emphasises how the main theme of the letter is the relation between the gospel and Christian ethics; the implications of Paul's teaching on slavery are considered in a manner which goes much further than the surface of the text might imply.

The Theology of the Gospel of Mark
  • W. R. Telford
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    17 June 1999
  • This 1999 book presents the reader with a comprehensive view of the theology underlying the first narrative account of the life of Jesus. In Chapter 1 Dr Telford introduces the background of the text and its general message, attempting briefly to place the Gospel (and therefore its theology) in its historical setting. In the second chapter, he describes and analyses the Gospel's theology, again from an historical perspective and with particular regard to its original context. In the third chapter, Telford goes on to examine the Gospel in relation to other relevant writings of the New Testament. Briefly reviewing this larger corpus and highlighting parallels and contrasts, where appropriate, he seeks to locate the Gospel's theology in its wider canonical context. The fourth and final chapter ranges even further afield, commenting on the Gospel's history of interpretation and on its significance in the contemporary context.

The Theology of the First Letter to the Corinthians
  • Victor Paul Furnish
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    13 June 1999
  • This study shows that the common view of 1 Corinthians as mainly about 'ethics' and therefore of little importance for 'theology' needs correcting. Furnish argues that 1 Corinthians is an even better place to take the apostle's theological pulse than the allegedly 'more theological' letters to the Galatians and Romans, because here it is especially evident how his thinking about the gospel took place within the crucible of his missionary and pastoral labours. Paul's complex theological legacy is not a systematic theology or even the basis for constructing a theological system. However, we come close to the heart of Paul's legacy in his clear-sighted identification of the gospel with the saving power of God's love as disclosed in Christ, and his insistence that those who are called to belong to Christ are thereby summoned to be agents of God's love wherever in the world they have received that call.

The Theology of the Gospel of Matthew
  • Ulrich Luz
  • Translated by J. Bradford Robinson
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    04 May 1995
  • Matthew's Gospel is the most significant Jewish-Christian document of the New Testament. For Matthew, the story of Jesus is the underlying tale of his own community, summoned from Israel by the living Jesus and now, following Israel's rejection, sent to the Gentiles. Matthew's Jesus story bears much the same relation to the Matthean community as does the Pentateuch to Israel, hence the profoundly Jewish basis of his theology. This book, first published in 1995, both outlines and elucidates the story told in Matthew's Gospel, emphasising its focal points: the Sermon on the Mount, the miracles, the renunciation of possessions and particularly the theology of judgement by works, an idea which represents both a challenge, in its quest for a church set apart from non-Christians by deeds alone, and a burden, through its traumatic origin in the breach between the Matthean community and the Israelite majority.

The Theology of the Gospel of John
  • Dwight Moody Smith
  • Published online:
    17 December 2010
    Print publication:
    26 January 1995
  • D. Moody Smith treats the theology of the Gospel of John in its narrative form and historical context, both ancient Jewish and early Christian. His work draws upon the most recent scholarly investigations of the Gospel's historical purpose and setting. The major theological themes of the Gospel, especially its christology, are treated in relation to the context of the work, since Johannine theology is not simply a by-product of controversies that produced the Gospel, but is rather related to them in significant ways. As Professor Smith shows, John marks an important watershed between Christianity and Judaism. His study will thus serve equally well as an introduction to the question of the origin of John and as an introduction to its theology. It also consistently pays attention to the relationship of the Gospel to other major New Testament witnesses as well as to its important influence upon the development of later Christian doctrine.

The Theology of the Letter to the Hebrews
  • Barnabas Lindars
  • Published online:
    03 February 2010
    Print publication:
    31 May 1991
  • The Letter to the Hebrews is of particular significance for the most important explanation of the sacrificial death of Christ contained in the New Testament. In this study, Barnabas Lindars explains the circumstances in which it was written, and expounds the writer's argument at length. At each stage in his survey the teaching of Hebrews is related to the major topics of New Testament theology, so that the distinctive character of the Letter's contribution can be assessed in depth. At the same time this topical arrangement serves the purpose of a systematic theology, so that the reader can discover what Hebrews has to say on such subjects as christology, the atoning death of Jesus, the new covenant, the Holy Spirit, and the use of the Old Testament. Special attention is paid to the rhetorical power of the Epistle, which is seen to mark it out as a work of great persuasive power, written in response to an urgent practical situation. A summary chapter indicates the place of Hebrews in the context of the development of early Christianity, while a final section assesses the influence Hebrews has had on subsequent Christian theology, and the way it has been used as a resource for liturgy and worship from ancient times to the present.

The Theology of the Later Pauline Letters
  • Andrew T. Lincoln, A. J. M. Wedderburn
  • Published online:
    30 October 2009
    Print publication:
    03 June 1993
  • This volume investigates the respective theologies of the Letters to the Colossians and the Ephesians, and in so doing provides an accessible introduction to the themes and significance of these New Testament books. A. J. M. Wedderburn examines the background to Colossians, and considers both its readers' situation and that of its author. He asks whether the proponents of the teaching against which this letter is written were Christians, putting forward their views as the true form of Christianity (as in Galatia), or whether they existed outside the Christian community as a seductive alternative to it. Andrew T. Lincoln examines in turn the authorship of Ephesians, and tries to explain the letter's strategy of persuasion and the key elements of its teaching about the new identity of the Christian believer. The similarities and differences between the thought of Ephesians and that of Paul are thereby set out clearly. Both sections of the book reflect on the relevance of these letters for today.

The Theology of the Pastoral Letters
  • Frances Margaret Young
  • Published online:
    01 October 2009
    Print publication:
    26 May 1994
  • The Pastoral Letters have often been marginalised in modern New Testament studies. Regarded as not authentically Pauline, not very theological, and mostly evidence of the church settling down in the world, their patriarchal orientation has more recently futher alienated readers. Yet it was these little letters which mediated Paul to the Patristic church, and then provided scriptural material for debate about church order and ministry from the Reformation to the present. This study attempts to re-read the Pastorals in their original setting, revising many of the standard scholarly assessments in the light of recent work (especially developments in sociological study of the New Testament), and exploring the development of a tradition which proves to be theological in its fundamental structure and in its mode of addressing practical and organisational issues. The letters are then related to the very different context of the modern world.