Brant James PITRE, Michael Patrick BARBER, and John A. KINCAID. Paul, a New Covenant Jew: Rethinking Pauline Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2019. xvii + 310 pages. Softcover: $35.00. ISBN: 978-08-028-7376-7. Reviewed by Bud MARR, National Institute for Newman Studies, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

  This 2019 offering by Pitre, Barber, and Kincaid is a welcome contribution to the field of Pauline studies. As the authors note in the introduction to the book, “contemporary debates over Paul … continue to be largely dominated by non-Catholic voices, mostly from Protestant traditions” (7). This trend is unfortunate for a number of reasons, prominent among them being the fact that many Christians look to Paul’s writings as the biblical source for understanding the nature of salvation and our new life in Christ. If for no other reason, then, it’s important that Catholic scholars maintain a visible presence in the field of Pauline studies as a vital facet of the Catholic apologetical task. Undoubtedly, any part of divine revelation is worth studying on its own merits, but Paul’s letters are especially significant in the dialogue with other Christians about the truth of the Catholic faith.   

The three authors bring a distinctly Catholic voice to the discussion of these topics not by leading with Catholic dogmas and then seeking to wield Paul in support of those convictions, but simply by constructively engaging Pauline theology (and the vast secondary literature on it) without feeling compelled to leave their Catholic commitments at the door. In their view, being Catholic—with the Catholic faith’s liturgical dimension and its emphasis on the harmony of faith and reason—makes them attentive to elements of Paul’s theology that scholars from other traditions might be prone to overlook. At the same time, the authors want to rebut the notion that their Catholic commitments could lead them to be unduly biased. In their view, “all of [the] core interpretive conclusions [they advance] are supported in the works of non-Catholic Pauline interpreters” (8). This overlap combined with the rich tradition of Catholic commentary on Scripture should encourage Catholics confidently to take their seat at the table of contemporary Pauline scholarship.

Pitre, Barber, and Kincaid do so, and the result is an impressively researched and carefully constructed engagement of the central theological motifs in Paul’s thought. They begin by asking, “What kind of Jew was Paul?” Recent scholarship on Paul, they assert, can be broadly broken down into three major answers to this question: Paul was a “former Jew,” Paul was an “eschatological Jew,” or Paul was a “torah-observant Jew.” While gleaning insights from each of these approaches, the authors end up proposing a fourth option. They describe Paul as a “new covenant Jew,” arguing that this framework besides being rooted in Paul’s self-description as a “minister of the new covenant” (2 Cor 3:6) also persuasively “account[s] for elements of both continuity (‘covenant’) and discontinuity (‘new’) with Judaism in Paul’s theology” (39; emphasis in the original). The case set forth in this section of the book lays the interpretive foundation for the chapters to follow, which treat a diverse range of themes, including christology, atonement theory, soteriology, and eucharistic theology.

The authors’ treatment of soteriological issues is a particularly strong section of the book. As they show, “according to the apostle, salvation is much more than mere ‘fire insurance’—getting out of ‘hell.’ It is also more than forgiveness of sin. For Paul, believers are destined for nothing less than being ‘conformed to the image of [God’s] Son’ (Rom 8:29)” (163, emphasis in the original). “Justifying faith,” in other words, “is essentially christological” (187). God makes us righteous through filial adoption, that is, by calling us to be his sons and daughters. This adoption, which takes place at baptism, effects what it signifies, bringing about a “cardiac righteousness” wherein the law of God is written on tablets of human hearts (cf. Jer 31:33 and 2 Cor 3:3). This cardiac righteousness is, thus, “both juridical and moral at the same time” (173). God declares us righteous and then, through the sending of the Spirit into our hearts, God accomplishes what he has spoken. Seen in this light, “the believer’s justice,” as Jean-Noël Aletti notes, “is not exterior to himself, only its origin” (quoted on 180; emphasis his). Apart from an action outside of ourselves, we could not be justified, but once God does act on our behalf the work that God accomplishes involves a real transformation of the person.  

After concluding this discussion, the authors transition to a study of the Lord’s Supper and the new creation before concluding with some brief remarks on Paul’s gospel of divine sonship. Each successive chapter in the book builds on the arguments of the chapters that have preceded it and certain key themes are woven throughout. So, for instance, the chapter on the eucharist hearkens back to the christological insights highlighted in the chapter on justification, noting among other points how Paul presents the Lord’s Supper as a sacrifice through which “the community becomes what is consumed—the body of Christ” (250). The liturgical life of the Church, therefore, is oriented towards “what the Catholic tradition has long called the admirabile commercium (the ‘great exchange’),” which affirms that Christ “became as we are so that we may become as he is” (253). The authors of this monograph make a convincing case that this idea represents the very core of Paul’s theology. It is an idea that we sinners cannot be reminded of too often, and Pitre, Barber, and Kincaid have performed a remarkable service by helping us to better understand this and other key truths drawn from Paul’s theology.