Paul's Theology in Context: Creation, Incarnation, Covenant, and Kingdom

By Dr. James Patrick Ware

This book is for students, seminarians, clergy, and laypeople who want to enrich their understanding of Paul.  It provides a basic “map” or guide to Paul’s theology that will illumine and enliven the study, preaching, and teaching of all his letters.  The book also provides a general introduction for the non-specialist to the key issues and debates in the contemporary study of Paul.  Through the new light it sheds on Paul by studying his gospel in its ancient context, this book will also be of interest to biblical scholars and to theologians who wish to work conversant with Scripture. 

The book is distinctive in its fresh focus on Paul’s theology within its twofold ancient context.  First, the book considers Paul’s gospel—just as he presented it to his pagan hearers—as the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes and Scriptures in Jesus Christ.  Second, the book examines how Paul’s message would have struck its first hearers within the context of the ancient pagan world into which it came, in order to discover what was different, startling, or unique about Paul’s gospel.  By studying Paul’s gospel in comparison with the thinkers and systems of the ancient pagan world to which Paul was sent—the Stoics, the Epicureans, the followers of Plato, as well as other ancient perspectives such as the teachings of the Buddha and of the Hindu sages—the book provides a fresh perspective on Paul’s theology, revealing four key pillars of Paul’s thought.  The main body of the book is divided into four parts, reflecting these four pillars of Pauline theology: Creation, Incarnation, Covenant, and Kingdom.  Part five explores the historical role of Paul within Christian origins, and the astounding evidence Paul’s letters provide regarding the beginnings of Christianity, the message of the apostles and eyewitnesses of Jesus, and the eyewitness origins of the Gospels.