Theology and Ethics in Paul and His Interpreters

This significant volume draws together an exceptional list of contributors to honor the life and work of Victor Paul Furnish. Doing credit to the focus and character of Furnish's career as a scholar, educator, and churchman, the individual essays, and the volume as a whole, have been written in a way that renders them accessible to seminary students in the classroom and that builds substantially on Furnish's own work. The book is structured in three parts: (1) Theology and Ethics in Paul (focusing on individual Pauline texts and on the broader themes, foundations, and context of Paul's theological and ethical thought); (2) Theology and Ethics in Paul's Earliest Interpreters (both in the NT and in the church which came to accept Paul's letters as canonical); and (3) Paul in Contemporary Theology and Ethics (engaging Furnish's own work as well as that of his colleagues and students in the area of Pauline theology and ethics). ""Furnish's distinguished career as an interpreter of Pauline theology and ethics is appropriately honored in this outstanding collection of essays. The best voices in Pauline studies wrestle with the critical issues of how the apostle has been and is to be understood in matters of faith and life--the nature of the self, the role of scripture in decision-making, the place of the law, issues like slavery and religious pluralism. The volume is a major contribution to the ongoing conversation."" --Charles B. Cousar Columbia Theological Seminary ""No Festschrift in recent years has included a more distinguished group of contributing scholars, and it is appropriate that they should salute one of the most outstanding Pauline scholars of this generation. This collection of timely and stimulating essays has immense importance for any consideration of the theology and ethics of Paul and his early interpreters, and should share the shelf with other great Festschriften of the last half-century dedicated to the likes of Bultmann, Kasemann, and C. H. Dodd. --Calvin J. Roetzel Macalester College Eugene H. Lovering Jr. (SMU) has served as Associate Director of the Society of Biblical Literature; as an independent editor and compositor for the former Scholars Press, the SBL, and various other academic publishers; as a construction leader for Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta and for church missions in North Georgia; and as pastor of United Methodist churches in Texas. He has recently moved to the Texas hill country, where, as Paul's interpreter, he endeavors to obey ""the first commandment with a promise."" Jerry L. Sumney is Professor of Biblical Studies at Lexington Theological Seminary. His books include Steward of God's Mysteries: Paul and Early Church Tradition; Paul: Apostle and Fellow-Traveler; The Bible: An Introduction; Colossians: A Commentary; and Identifying Paul's Opponents: The Question of Method in 2 Corinthians (the revision of his dissertation with Victor Furnish). He is also the editor of Reading the Letter to the Romans and co-editor of Paul and Pathos.