The New Perspective Revisited

I recently stumbled into an article I wrote on the New Perspective back in 2007. Now in the thick of a class where I am studying the topic first hand, I suspect that it will need some revision. However, a fuller revision will have to wait. Suffice it to say for now that on the one hand I am a bit more sympathetic to some of the scholarly arguments, yet remain concerned that they have simply replaced one perspective with the other (contrary to the claims of such as Dunn that they are merely supplementing.) The case is still not made for me, especially after yesterday's tour de force of several Second Temple texts which are supposedly the basis for covenantal nomism, which in turn forms the basis of the New Perspective. It remains a both/and, not an either/or, to which I fear many in the NP camp have fallen. Today we will be looking at Krister Stendahl, a precursor to the leading lights of the present NP discussions. While I will grant to him as well some credit for making a good point, I sense he also misunderstands Luther, as too many NP scholars also appear to do. As the 'token Lutheran' in this Anglican class I suppose I will feel a burden to now defend the great Reformer and in the process learn about him more deeply. Or at least that it my hope.

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