This interdisciplinary dissertation analyses the New Perspective on Paul and its aftermath with an eye to Jewish-Christian relations. The New Perspective on Paul is a fresh exegetical reading of Paul that goes against the trend in historic Pauline research by reading the apostle from an explicitly Jewish context. It re-evaluates Paul’s relationship to Judaism (which it presents in much more positive terms), reworks his understanding of justification (which is more about gentiles and Jews being in joint covenant membership than about personal salvation) and generally presents Paul as a religious Jew who tries to re-form Judaism more than start a new gentile religion called Christianity. 

Such a reading is of high interest to contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue as the latter continues to wrestle with a long heritage of what is termed Christian theological supersessionism. Supersessionism is the theological opinion that the Church has replaced Israel as the people of God and that the Church exclusively enjoys the promises and the presence of God to the detriment of Israel. That the New Perspective portrays Paul as a life-long, self-identifying Jew called to evangelise the nations in the name of Israel’s God, and that he does so from within a consistently Jewish theological framework, challenges many of those supersessionist assumptions. 

In order to bring the most out of this interdisciplinary exchange between Pauline exegesis and Jewish-Christian dialogue the dissertation is divided into three main parts. It firstly evaluates the underlying premises at play in Pauline interpretations by both Christian and Jewish scholars prior to and post the New Perspective on Paul, with special reference being made to the issue of supersessionism (chapters 1–4). It then gives an overview and analysis of how contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue is responding to the question of supersessionism in terms of the Jewish-Christian covenantal relationship and the related issue of Christian mission to the Jews (chapter 5). Thirdly, it compares and contrasts the results of those two areas of research by a series of round table discussions and advances possible ways forward on the topic of supersessionism in the general conclusion (chapter 6). 

Chapter 1 therefore carries out a thorough overview of the literature prior to the New Perspective on Paul. In practical terms this means tracing the broad outlines and trajectories of Pauline research since its modern scientific beginning in the work of F.C. Baur right through to the post World War II writings of R. Bultmann (approximately covering the period 1845–1950). These main trajectories are then compared with Jewish scholarship on Paul as it has developed since the late 19th century from I.M. Wise to H.J. Schoeps (covering the period 1870–1960). This chapter also analyses whether and to what extent the mainstream Christian perspectives on Paul had affinity with the Nazi use of Paul in the mid 20th century and further discusses the relationship between exegesis and the historical context in which it is written. 

Chapter 2 then discerns and evaluates the three main relectures that took place within New Testament scholarship in the post-war and post-Holocaust generation (covering the period 1945–1982). These are the reclamation of Paul as a baptised Jew (W.D. Davies), the reconfiguration of the Pauline doctrine of justification away from its Lutheran mould (K. Stendahl), and the fundamental re-appraisal of late Second Temple Judaism/early rabbinic Judaism as a non-legalistic religion (E.P. Sanders). These three streams are found to be the immediate seed-bed within which the New Perspective takes root and grows. This chapter concludes with a detailed assessment of the famed article by J.D.G. Dunn simply entitled “The New Perspective on Paul” (1982). 

Chapter 3 then undertakes an in-depth critical evaluation of both E.P. Sanders re-evaluation of Second Temple Judaism and J.D.G. Dunn’s re-evaluation of Paul, drawing once more on the insights of both contemporary Christian and Jewish scholarship (covering the period 1982–2010). It is concluded that Sanders respective portraiture of ancient Judaism and Dunn’s (corrected) model of Paul’s understanding of justification ultimately resist falsification and will therefore continue to stand as established paradigms for the foreseeable future. 

Having uncovered the underlying premises and foundational presuppositions at play in this field of research (especially as it pertains to Paul’s self-identity and his relationship to Judaism), chapter 4 then presents my own critical reading of Paul which is termed “Christic pneumatism”. This interpretation seeks to divulge and analyse both the deep structure of Paul’s gospel (how it functions as a pattern of religion) as well as the deep narrative which envelops it and gives it meaning within the wider scope of salvation history. Conclusions are then drawn as to how far and in what way Paul and Pauline theology could be termed “supersessionist” vis-à-vis Judaism.

Chapter 5 then shifts focus to an analysis of contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue (1965–2010) by putting the spotlight on two principle issues, namely covenant and mission. A double question is asked in this regard: “What is the best way to talk of the covenantal relationship between Judaism and Christianity and should Christians be in mission ‘with’ or ‘to’ the Jewish people?” These two loci of covenant and mission dovetail very well with the main concerns of the New Perspective on Paul with its own interest in the doctrine of justification (covenant belonging) and the relationship between Jews and gentiles. An overview and analysis of Catholic documents is then carried out with further comparative references being made to the World Council of Churches’ and other Protestant and Evangelical texts, resulting in the development of a series of provisional conclusions.

Finally, chapter 6 brings together the previous results gathered from the research into Pauline studies and the additional results garnered from contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue. A series of round table discussions are established on four topics (Paul’s relationship to Judaism, covenant, mission and eschatology). From this dynamic interaction considerable insights and recommendations for further progress are drawn. The dissertation then concludes with a final analysis of the question of supersessionism and sets forth alternative hermeneutical approaches for coming to a post-supersessionist reading of Paul and a post-supersessionist Christian identity.