Saturating myself in N.T. Wright for a few hours was enjoyable. I have one of his books, The Challenge of Jesus, and I have ordered two others. I listened to several of the audio clips at the N.T. Wright page and read many of the articles there as well.

One thing that has really been a source of joy and encouragement to me is this: I wrote Wretched Urgency (I) BEFORE I ever read or heard a word of Wright. Consider this key paragraph from that essay as compared to the extended Wright quote below.

Here. Quote me. There is no urgent concern for converting people in the New Testament. Did you get that down? There is also no urgent concern for the numerical growth of churches by the efforts of members to convert others. There are no burgeoning church programs. There are no plans to train everyone to door knock and sell Jesus. There is an urgent concern for doctrinal and personal Christ-likeness. There is a concern for leadership, integrity, honesty and obedience to Christ in our personal lives. The idea that we are here to “win souls” and not to know and show God is bogus.
Whooha!

I am going to spend some time at Monergism.com where Lurker John has a full page of articles critical of the New Perspective on Paul. Having read Wilson’s Reformed is Not Enough and Piper’s Counted Righteous In Christ, I know a bit about this controversy, but I am reading The Paul Page and the critics listed at Monergism with an open mind.

Just a few observations at this point.

1) Some New Perspective scholars clearly go a bit far in some of their reinterpretation of Paul. I particularly think some of Wright’s view on “righteousness” may be forced.
2) I am very concerned with the canonizing of the Reformers. I mean really concerned. Saying the Reformers couldn’t possibly be wrong is ludicrous. Saying that new light can’t come from the Word based on further knowledge of first century Judaism is a betrayal of Reformation principles.
3) Just how much depends on a technical understanding of imputation? Piper says that faith rests on all that God is for us in Christ. If we differ on some aspects of imputation, but agree that all our salvation is “in Christ” and Christ alone, how much blood needs to be spilt over that?
4) Wright’s views on the centrality of Christ’s resurrection and the prominence of historical resurrection are sound, imo, especially in rejecting the view of “heaven” that is common in American culture. I appreciate his calling out Darbyism by name as the culprit in misunderstanding much of the New Testament.
5) Wright’s polemics against Roman Catholicism (on purgatory and Mary especially) and liberalism are strong. Much stronger than many evangelicals today. I can’t see Wright signing on to ECT.
6) Shreiner and Canaday had a lot to say about the Reformers misreading of scripture on Justification in their book on perseverance, The Race Set Before Us. I think some New Perspective correctives, particularly on how justification was viewed in the first century Jewish mind, are healthy. (Future, Present and Past dimensions, and the corporate/individual relationship as well.)