Galatians (Commentaries for Christian Formation)
Overview
Galatians is often read by Christians as being primarily concerned with the traditional doctrine of justification through faith, but it is also a text focused deeply on the political concerns of its specific historical moment. This commentary from N. T. Wright—the inaugural volume of the Commentaries for Christian Formation series—offers a theological interpretation of Galatians that puts that historical context of the book in dialogue with present questions, so that readers can understand both what Paul meant and what his writing might mean for us today.
Each section of verse-by-verse commentary in this volume is followed by Wright’s reflections on what the text says about Christian formation today, making this an excellent resource for individual readers and those preparing to teach or preach on Galatians. The focus on formation is especially appropriate for this biblical letter, in which Paul wrote to his fellow early Christians, “My children—I seem to be in labor with you all over again, until the Messiah is fully formed in you!”
The Commentaries for Christian Formation (CCF) series serves a central purpose of the Word of God for the people of God: faith formation. Some series focus on exegesis, some on preaching, some on teaching, and some on application. This new series integrates all these aims, serving the church by showing how sound theological exegesis can underwrite preaching and teaching, which in turn forms believers in the faith.
Uniting these volumes is a shared conviction that interpreting Scripture is not an end in itself. Faithful belief, prayer, and practice, deeper love of God and neighbor: these are ends of scriptural interpretation for Christians. The volumes in Commentaries for Christian Formation interpret Scripture in ways aimed at ordering readers’ lives and worship in imitation of Christ, informing their understanding of God, and animating their participation in the church’s global mission with a deepened sense of calling.
- Includes verse-by-verse commentary
- Shows how sound theological exegesis can underwrite preaching and teaching
- Offers a theological interpretation of Galatians that puts that historical context of the book in dialogue with present questions
Top Highlights
“The great drama of Scripture is not fundamentally about ‘how we can leave ‘earth’ and go to live with God in ‘heaven,’ ’ but how God gets to come and live with us. The final scene in Scripture is not (as in the medieval mystery plays) about ‘saved souls’ going up to ‘heaven,’ but about the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, so that ‘the dwelling of God is with humans’ (Rev 21:3).” (Page 12)
“This is, after all, in line with Jesus’s own practice and teaching, based on passages such as the messianic agenda of Psalm 72. The reason God’s glory fills the whole world, at the end of that psalm, is that the king has done justice for the poor and the oppressed. Just as the king is to build the temple so that the divine glory may dwell there, so the ideal king will do justice and mercy for the poor and needy so that the divine glory may dwell in all the earth.” (Page 103)
“The great strength of this is that it is giving a biblical answer to the medieval question. The great weakness is that it is giving a biblical answer to the medieval question. And that question loomed so large at the time that it was assumed to be the only question that really mattered: How do I get to heaven? How can I be sure? How do I know I’ve done enough? How do I know I won’t go to hell, and won’t have to go to purgatory either?” (Page 11)
“Here, his emphasis is that Messiah-believers, all of them, are the new-creation people in whom the ancient Abrahamic promises have come true, and who must therefore live as a single family, sharing table fellowship, and not allow themselves to be bullied into stepping back into the ‘present age’ where Israel’s Torah would still hold sway.” (Page 40)
- Title: Galatians
- Author: N. T. Wright
- Series: Commentaries for Christian Formation
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Pages: 419
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible. N.T. Galatians › Commentaries
- ISBNs: 9780802825605, 0802825605
- Resource ID: LLS:CCF69GA
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:32:10Z
Nicholas Thomas “Tom” Wright (1948–) is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Christianity Today named him one of today's top theologians.
Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, and recounts an awareness of God's presence from a young age—and that relationship with God ever since is reflected in his life and work. He's a prolific author; one of his most popular books, Surprised by Hope, frames the resurrection of the dead as the appropriate hope for all believers rather than an overemphasis on just "going to heaven when you die." He's among the leading theologians in the New Perspective on Paul debate. Wright has several honorary doctoral degrees, and in 2014, the British Academy awarded him the Burkitt Medal "in recognition of special service to biblical studies." In 2015, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Wright served as chaplain at Cambridge from 1978 to 1981, then as assistant professor of New Testament language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. Before becoming a chaplain, tutor, lecturer, and fellow at Oxford in 1986, Wright served as dean of Lichfield Cathedral, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, and the bishop of Durham from 2003–10. In addition to the entire New Testament for Everyone Series, some of N. T. Wright's books include The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, Who Was Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, God and the Pandemic, Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, and Simply Christian. He coauthored Jesus the Final Days with Craig A. Evans.
