finitum non capax infiniti

Thomas Schreiner is the James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of, among others, the Romans volume in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Paul: Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ, and the co-editor of an interesting book on baptism entitled Believer’s Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ.His newest work, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ, was recently published. It is a massive volume (888 pgs + Bibliography + Scripture, name, and subject index; 990 pgs. total) that has been much anticipated and commended by some significant New Testament scholars, such as Ben Witherington III, Douglas Moo, Simon Gathercole, and Donald Hagner.

I have decided to do a chapter-by-chapter review for a few reasons. First, I want to read the book, but because of the size know that I will never sit down and continue to read it unless I set up a schedule. Second, this blog needs some New Testament content. Third, I like alliteration (Midrash Mondays, Wednesdays with Waltke, and (now) Sundays with Schreiner).

This week I will give an overview of the layout of the book as well as summarize and review the Preface and Introduction. There are four major parts of the book, which is comprised of 19 chapters, an Epilogue, and an Appendix:

Part 1: The Fulfillment of God’s Saving Promises: The Already-Not Yet. This is broken down into three chapters: ( 1 ) Kingdom of God in the Synoptic Gospels, ( 2 ) Eternal Life and Eschatology in John’s Theology, and ( 3 ) Inaugurated Eschatology Outside the Gospels.

Part 2: The God of Promise: The Saving Work of the Father, Son, and Spirit. This is broken down into 10 chapters: ( 4 ) The Centrality of God in New Testament Theology, ( 5 ) The Centrality of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels, ( 6 ) The Messiah and the Son of Man in the Gospels, ( 7 ) Son of God, I Am, and Logos, ( 8 ) Jesus’ Saving Work in the Gospels, ( 9 ) Jesus’ Saving Work in Acts, ( 10 ) The Christology of Paul, ( 11 ) The Saving Work of God and Christ according to Paul, ( 12 ) The Christology of Hebrews-Revelation, and ( 13 ) The Holy Spirit.

Part 3: Experiencing the Promise: Believing and Obeying. This is broken down into three chapters: ( 14 ) The Problem of Sin, ( 15 ) Faith and Obedience, ( 16 ) The Law and Salvation History.

Part 4: The People of the Promise and the Future of the Promise. This is broken down into three chapters: ( 17 ) The People of the Promise, ( 18 ) The Social World of God’s People, and ( 19 ) The Consummation of God’s Promises.

The book ends with an Epilogue and an Appendix entitled “Reflections on New Testament Theology.”

What is hinted at by the structure of the book on the table of contents is made explicit by Schreiner in the Preface: he favors a thematic approach to NT theology. He sees the value in a book-by-book and notes that there are pros and cons for anyway of doing an NT theology. Although he notes the danger of a thematic approach in that it can overlook certain aspects of NT teaching or that it can focus on one writer (i.e., Paul) at the expense of others (i.e., Jude), he defends the thematic approach: “none of the NT writings contains the whole of what is taught in the NT. They are accurate but partial and fragmentary witnesses. They witness truly but not exhaustively to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, a thematic approach to NT theology is invaluable because it attempts to capture the whole of what is taught by considering all twenty-seven books” (13). He then rightly questions the idea of a “center” to NT theology. Instead, he looks at the NT from two perspectives: ( 1 ) “God’s purpose in all that he does is to bring honor to himself and to Jesus Christ” (13) and ( 2 ) “the centrality of God in Christ leads to abstraction if it is not closely related to the history of salvation, to the fulfillment of God’s promises” (14). These will be the two perspectives by which the NT will be viewed throughout the book.

In the introduction Schreiner gets right to work by stating his thesis: “The thesis advanced in this book is that NT theology is God-focused, Christ-centered, and Spirit-saturated, but the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit must be understood along a salvation-historical timeline; that is, God’s promises are already fulfilled but not yet consummated in Christ Jesus” (23). In order to “argue for the centrality of God in Christ in the concrete and specific witness of the NT as it unfolds God’s saving work in history” (23), Schreiner quickly moves through the OT backdrop, the Synoptic Gospels, Johannine Literature, Acts, Pauline Literature, Hebrews and James, 1-2 Peter and Jude, and Revelation in order to show how each speak of the centrality of God in Christ through the Spirit, the fulfillment of promises, and the presence of an “already/not-yet” understanding of salvation history. This is helpful for the reader to get an overview of where Schreiner will be going in this volume as it shows which themes he will be focusing on the most, since, by the nature of a book on NT theology, it must be selective.

The only thing that I don’t like about the book thus far, and something that is going to bother me for all 888+ pages of the book, is the way he has chosen to cite works in the footnotes. Instead of following an SBL format (i.e., Thomas R. Schreiner, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 120-33), he has chosen to simply note the author’s last name, date of book, and page number (i.e. Schreiner 2008: 120-33). It’s a small point and pretty nerdy of me to even bring up, but it did bother me. I am still excited to continue reading the book, however, as I think it will be a good learning experience for me to read a book on NT theology.