Rereading Paul Together: Protestant and Catholic Perspectives on Justification (review)

This collection of essays derives, in part, from a symposium that the University of Notre Dame and Valparaiso University cosponsored in February of 2002: "Rereading Paul Together: A Colloquium on the Modern Critical Study and Teaching of Pauline Theology in Education and Ecumenical Context." The special focus of that Pauline colloquium was the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification that Lutherans and Catholics had ratified on October 31, 1999. That declaration came into being, in large measure, because Catholics and Lutherans had engaged in a process of rereading Paul together.

The first three essays of this volume deal most directly with the Joint Declaration. Dale G. Truemper rehearses how the Joint Declaration came about, summarizes some of its key features, and describes those habits of the mind and heart that made it possible. Susan K. Wood recounts the Catholic reception of the Declaration, giving special attention to the concept of merit, the Lutheran understanding of simul justus et peccator, the importance of justification as a criterion for all other doctrines, and the effect of the Declaration on church identity. Michael Root then summarizes the Lutheran reception of the Declaration, noting that whereas the Declaration pursues a way of mediation, Lutheran theology has tended to be more contrastive in nature. Root concludes that a theology built solely on contrasts is not sufficient to interpret the full meaning of the Gospel.

The remaining essays deal more specifically with Paul. Focusing on Romans and Galatians, Joseph A. Fitzmyer summarizes the Pauline notion of justification by faith from a Catholic perspective. John Reumann does the same from a Lutheran perspective, giving his attention to Philippians. While they essentially agree on Paul's understanding of justification, Reumann is more inclined to interpret justification as the core of Paul's theology whereas Fitzmyer emphasizes that, as important as justification is, it is one of many ways Paul describes the effects of the Christ event. In his response to Fitzmyer, Richard E. DeMaris warns that newer approaches in Pauline exegesis may make it more difficult to read Paul together in the future. In her response to Reumann, Margaret M. Mitchell suggests that if Catholics and Lutherans are to continue to read Paul together, they will have to draw upon a tradition of interpretation that consciously preserves alternative points of view in reading the text.

The essays of David M. Rylaarsdam and Randall C. Zachman are more historical in nature. Rylaarsdam summarizes three interpretations of Paul in the early church: those of Origin, Chrysostom, and Augustine. Zachman then contrasts the medieval reading of Paul that was indebted to Augustine—who focused on how we are to love God—with Luther's reading of Paul that asks how sinners can know with certainty that God loves them. David E. Aune, the editor of this volume, concludes with a masterful overview of recent readings of Paul as they relate to justification by faith.

The essays of this volume are uniformly good, indeed excellent. On the one hand, they show how Lutherans and Catholics were able to agree on an issue that once divided them by making use of an historical-critical method and reading Paul together rather than in isolation from each other. On the other, this volume suggests that it may be more difficult to read Paul together in the future, given the proliferation of so many new readings of Paul and the disparagement of the historical-critical method by some.