Considering the importance of pneumatological themes for interpreting Paul's argument of Galatians, Grant Buchanan explores how Paul draws from Jewish traditions of creation and the Spirit and presents a fresh cosmogony to the Galatian church. He suggests that Galatians outlines an epistemological shift in how Paul sees past, present, and future reality in light of Christ and the presence of the Spirit in the lives of the believers. The most crucial aspect of this new cosmogony is the centrality of the Spirit in Paul's argument in Galatians 3:1–6:17, with Buchanan's exegesis revealing that the Spirit, the Galatians' identity as children of God and the new creation motif are not merely elements of Paul's argument but intrinsic to it. Buchanan demonstrates that Paul renders Jewish and Gentile identities no longer valid, instead revealing that God's favour and election is already with them by stating that those who have the promised Spirit are all children of God. He examines Jewish biblical and Second Temple extra-biblical texts that explicitly connect the Spirit to creation themes, including Genesis, Ezekiel, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Wisdom of Solomon. Taking Galatians 6:11–17 as the body-closing of the letter, the new creation motif directly implies the activity of the Spirit in the creation of Christian identity. Analysing 6:15 from this pneumatological perspective, Buchanan argues that the new creation motif represents a key aspect of Paul's generative cosmogony and pneumatology, indicating a far broader socio-cosmic transformation than previously assumed, and it becomes a key to understanding Paul's argument.

In the dominant interpretation of the Antioch incident Paul is viewed as separating from Peter and Jewish Christianity to lead his own independent mission which was eventually to triumph in the creation of a church with a gentile identity. Paul's gentile mission, however, represented only one strand of the Christ movement but has been universalized to signify the whole. The consequence of this view of Paul is that the earliest diversity in which he operated and which he affirmed has been anachronistically diminished almost to the point of obliteration. There is little recognition of the Jewish form of Christianity and that Paul by and large related positively to it as evidenced in Romans 14-15. Here Paul acknowledges Jewish identity as an abiding reality rather than as a temporary and weak form of faith in Christ. This book argues that diversity in Christ was fundamental to Paul and that particularly in his ethical guidance this received recognition. Paul's relation to Judaism is best understood not as a reaction to his former faith but as a transformation resulting from his vision of Christ. In this the past is not obliterated but transformed and thus continuity is maintained so that the identity of Christianity is neither that of a new religion nor of a Jesus cult. In Christ the past is reconfigured and thus the diversity of humanity continues within the church, which can celebrate the richness of differing identities under the Lordship of Christ.

The author explores the Christian identity characteristics of Pauls letter to the Galatians. By so doing, she presents Pauls struggle to work out a form of Christianity, which includes Jews and Gentiles, males and females, free and slave, on the basis of their common baptism in Christ. While the Roman Empire struggled to include many different ethnic groups, Paul in Galatians makes a bold breakthrough to a new inclusivity in Christ and his Holy Spirit. This solution holds major social implications: it can help overcome divisions of race, culture, nationality, or ethnicity. The author endeavours to affirm certain equality among people while also realizing that this equality is not absolute in every respect. The results of the study of Galatians confronts the situation in the new Republic of South Africa where, despite the ultra-liberal constitution, the country still needs the inclusive and ethical message of Galatians to address the new problems of blackon-black racism, xenophobia, homophobia, violence against women, great corruption in government, and irresponsible exercise of authority and freedom. Galatians remains crucial for its insistence on social inclusivity and liberating, yet real, ethics. The author is convinced that the eternal truths of Christianity, as displayed in the Jesus Movement of antiquity, are still relevant in addressing contemporary life issues that aggrieve people in post-Apartheid South Africa.

The significance of the Pauline writings / Joseph A. Fitzmyer -- Divisions are necessary (1 Corinthians 11:19) / Jerome Murphy-O'Connor -- In search of the historical Paul / James D.G. Dunn -- "I rate all things as loss": Paul's puzzling accounting system: Judaism as loss or the re-evaluation of all things in Christ? / William S. Campbell -- Paul and the Jewish tradition: the ideology of the Shema / Mark D. Nanos -- Paul, a change agent: model for the twenty-first century / John J. Pilch -- Paul's four discourses about sin / Stanley K. Stowers -- Adam and Christ in the Pauline Epistles / Pheme Perkins -- Living in newness of life: Paul's understanding of the moral life / Frank J. Matera -- Ecocentric or anthropocentric?: a reading of Romans 8:18-25 / Jan Lambrecht -- "Set apart for the gospel" (Romans 1:1): Paul's self-introduction in the letter to the Romans / Ekkehard W. Stegemann -- Adam, Christ, and the law in Romans 5-8 / Brendan Byrne --, and in Paul's writings / Helmut Koester -- Interpreting Romans 11:14: what is at stake? / Jean-Noël Aletti -- Reinterpreting Romans 13 within its broader context / Robert Jewett -- "To the Jew first" (Romans 1:16): Paul's defense of Jewish privilege in Romans / Gregory Tatum -- Paul, ritual purity, and the ritual baths south of the Temple Mount (Acts 21:15-28) / David E. Aune -- Where have all my siblings gone?: a reflection on the use of kinship language in the Pastoral Epistles / Raymond F. Collins -- Augustine's Pauline method: 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 as a case study / Thomas F. Martin.

The purpose of this book is to communicate as clearly as possible Paul's gospel of God in its depth, from what I have learned over five decades of studying Paul's letters and theology. But, regardless of how much I have gained from teachers past and present, the bottom line is that "the things freely given us by God" in Paul's gospel can only be known by the Spirit of God, through comparing Paul's Spirit-taught words with Spirit-taught words (1 Cor 2:12-13). Luther's grasp of how justification in Christ--and thus faith in Christ--is central, is verified by what Paul says in Rom 1:16-17; that in the gospel, God's saving righteousness is revealed, from Christ's faith to our faith. The message of this book can be summed up as follows: The life of the person in Christ is to be one of trust in Christ for righteousness before God, and, through that faith, obedience to Christ as Lord. This life is possible because Christ believers have died with Christ to the lordship of the Sin and the law, and are alive to God in Christ Jesus--owned by him as Lord, being one spirit with him.

In this book Gordon Mikoski examines how the sacrament of baptism, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the practice of Christian education together constitute a dynamic nexus that has the potential to foster congregations marked by the formation of both deep Christian identity and creative engagement in public arenas for the common good. / After establishing the necessity of holding baptism, Trinity, and ecclesial pedagogy together through his careful study of both Gregory of Nyssa and John Calvin, Mikoski outlines how this nexus can function for contemporary Christian communities as they carry out the work of educational ministry. He then explores the dynamics of faith formation in the contemporary American context, concluding with a suggestive treatment of implications of the baptism-Trinity-pedagogy nexus for the educational ministry of a given congregation.