The Nations in the Divine Economy: Paul’s Covenantal Hermeneutics and Participation in Christ by William S. Campbell (review)

In this book William S. Campbell argues that, by reading Paul through the distorting lens of anti-Judaism, both the historic church and modern scholarship have failed to grasp the important and positive place of the Jewish people in Paul’s thought. Building upon his well-known previous work in this area, C. argues for a reading of Paul’s theology that concentrates on God’s covenant with Israel. Paul’s theology and practice promoted the continuation of both Jewish and non-Jewish ethnic identities in Christ, encouraging diversity rather than uniformity within the early Christian movement. Understanding this dimension of Paul’s theology is crucial, C. maintains, if we are in our time to avoid anti-Jewish prejudice and foster mutual respect and understanding.

The chapters of the book do not follow a simple linear progression but instead develop C.’s key theses in a variety of ways through interaction with the history of scholarship, relevant Pauline passages (e.g., 2 Corinthians 3), and key Pauline themes (e.g., participation, covenant, the remnant). In what follows, therefore, I will not set out a chapter-by-chapter description but rather will summarize C.’s overall exegetical proposal regarding the relation of Jew and gentile in Christ.

As one might expect, C. opposes the “apocalyptic” reading of Paul advocated by J. Louis Martyn, as well as E. P. Sanders’s characterization of Paul’s theology as a “pattern of religion” distinct from ancient Judaism. But he is also critical of scholars who emphasize the Jewish context of Paul’s thought and yet do not (in his view) adequately account for the continuing importance of ethnic Israel in the history of salvation (e.g., N. T. Wright). C.’s distinctive approach involves five key theses.

(1) Paul nowhere identifies gentile Christ-followers with Israel or the remnant: “the ongoing attempt by Christian theologians to claim the title Israel or new Israel for the Church is a flawed enterprise” (p. 305). (2) Paul remained a Torah-observant Jew and expected Jewish followers of Christ to keep the law. Paul’s practice presupposed two parallel missions, resulting in two distinct communities: Jewish Christ-followers, and gentile Christ-followers as “a satellite congregation alongside of Israel” (p. 317). (3) Jesus, Israel’s messiah, brought not a new covenant displacing the old but a renewal and ratification of the one unchanged covenant given through Moses. (4) Gentile followers of Christ do not enter this covenant but share in its blessings as a “parallel people” through their participatory union with Christ. Participation in Christ is not necessary for Jewish Christ-followers, already in relation to God through the covenant. (5) The covenant ensures that all physical descendants of Jacob, despite their differing responses to the revelation of God in Christ, will be saved in the time of eschatological renewal. C.’s view is thus similar to the “two-covenant” proposals of Lloyd Gaston and John Gager, except that C. envisions not two covenants but two parallel tracks of salvation.

There is much that is praiseworthy in this volume. C. certainly proves his point regarding the reluctance of many scholars, in the past as well as today, to recognize adequately the Jewish foundations of Paul’s theology. C. is also persuasive that in Paul’s thought the unity of Jew and gentile in Christ does not cancel out their diversity but presupposes it. “What Paul opposes is not difference itself but boasting in difference” (p. 91). C.’s approach, however, for all its strengths, fails to provide a convincing account of Paul’s theology of Jew and gentile in Christ. His position requires reading multiple Pauline texts in opposition to what has seemed to most interpreters their plain sense, and yet C. does not generally provide a detailed exegetical justification of these moves or interact extensively with opposing readings. A few representative examples must suffice. As noted...