Divine and Human Agency in Paul and his Cultural Environment

Since the work of E.P. Sanders, most modern approaches to this topic have been focused on social or sociological aspects of the issue (particularly in relation to Paul's mission to the Gentiles), but the last few years have seen an increasing willingness to open up questions seemingly 'settled' in the New Perspective, and a renewed desire to examine the structures of theology concerning grace and human action both in Paul and in his contemporary Judaism. It seems now worthwhile to examine to what extent there was an internal debate within Judaism about divine grace and its relation to human agency, and whether this debate could or did spawn various more or less radical solutions. The aim of this volume is to re-examine Paul within contemporary Jewish debate on this topic, attuned to the significant theological issues he raises without imposing upon him the frameworks developed in later Christian thought.

• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction - John M. G. Barclay
• 2. Inner-Jewish Debate on the Tension between Divine and Human Agency in Second-Temple Judaism - Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan, USA.
• 3. Predestination and Free Will in the Theology of the Dead Sea Scrolls - Philip Alexander, University of Manchester, UK.
• 4. The Tension between God's Command and Israel's Obedience as Reflected in the Early Rabbinic Literature - Friedrich Avemarie, University of Marburg, Germany.
• 5. Paul's Anthropological 'Pessimism' in its Jewish Context - Stephen Westerholm, McMaster University, USA.
• 6. Constructing an Antithesis: Pauline and other Jewish perspectives on divine and human agency - Francis Watson, University of Aberdeen, UK.
• 7. Self-sufficiency and Power: Divine and Human Agency in Epictetus and Paul - Troels Engberg-Pedersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 8. 'By the Grace of God I am what I am': Grace and Agency in Philo and Paul - John Barclay, University of Glasgow, UK.
• 9. Sin in God's Economy: Agencies in Romans 1 & 7 - Simon J Gathercole, University of Aberdeen, UK.
• 10. Epilogue: An Essay in Pauline Meta-ethics - J. Louis Martyn, Union Theological Seminary, USA.
• Bibliography
• Index of Biblical and Other Ancient References
• Index of Modern Authors