Review of The Canonical Paul

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Canonical Paul: Constructing Paul. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020, pp. 385. $56.99, hardback.

Johnson, Luke Timothy.  The Canonical Paul: Interpreting Paul. Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 2021, pp. 598. $64.99, hardback.

canonical Paul is the Paul that continues to transform the church and that he does so, not as a systematic theologian, but as an innovative thinker working with churches committed to his call as an apostle.

Luke Timothy Johnson is Candler School of Theology’s Robert W. Woodruff Professor Emeritus, a prolific writer, and notable NT scholar. These two volumes represent a lifetime of scholarship on Paul. I am humbled by the opportunity to the review them.

Though this two-volume work is massive, it is easily readable, particularly the first volume, as it (kind of) serves as an introduction to the second volume, though Johnson hopes that each volume and essay can be read on its own (p. 1:15). In the second volume, rather than deal in generalities or foundational concepts, Johnson is engaged in specific, unique inquiries the study of Paul’s letters evokes. Johnson states, “My effort will not be to fix Paul in the past but to liberate his letters for the present” (p. 1:13). This theme is fixed throughout the work and found most notably in Johnson’s commitment to the Paul of the canon, who he calls “the Paul of the church” (p. 1:14). He argues that Paul’s theology is polythetic rather than monothetic, by which he means that Paul does not operate by a singular theme. The concept of Pauline authorship (be it a Pauline school during Paul’s own lifetime or by his own hand), that canonical Paul is a liberator not a fixed historical entity, and that Paul was not a systematic thinker in the modern sense of the term are repeated throughout and serve as the foundational underpinnings of Johnson’s work.

The first volume is split into three parts, each consistent with the metaphor of construction (the title is Constructing Paul). The first part (“Preliminary Scaffolding,” chapters 1–4) considers the historical Paul by way of the sources, his life and ministry, his correspondence (his letters––Johnson sees Paul’s letters as clusters with similar concerns rather than the common disputed/undisputed dichotomy of modern scholarship), and his place in early Christianity. From there, part 2 (“The Materials,” chapters 5–7) takes a deeper look into the person of Paul asking what kind of Jew he was, as well as considering how Paul viewed Scripture and to what extent he was engaged in (and informed by) the wider Greco-Roman world (according to Johnson, not much). The final part (Part 3, “The Elements,” chapters 8–11) begins by highlighting Paul’s “texture of experience” by which Johnson means, “the way in which the ordinary and the extraordinary are woven together (p. 1:205).” For example, the resurrection (extraordinary) provides the background for lived experience (ordinary), an interlacing of experience and theology that Johnson asserts is “truly distinctive” (p. 1:206) to Paul. Next, in contrast to viewing Paul as a “deductive or systematic thinker,” (p. 1:224) Johnson points out that Paul’s own experience (and that of the churches) is what is “stimulating and shaping each of Paul’s letters” (p. 1:224) and affects the language he uses in these letters––what Johnson identifies as Paul’s “convictions, myths, symbols, and metaphors” (p. 1:224). Johnson demonstrates that Paul’s diverse language ought to prevent one from creating a “false simplicity” from Paul’s complexity (p. 1:246). Johnson enlists Philemon as a case study that demonstrates the interwoven character of Paul’s experience, convictions, and language, but does so without explicitly recruiting systematized categories of Pauline theology. In this chapter (10), Johnson also theorizes that Philemon and Colossians (along with the possibility of Ephesians) were sent together––one as a personal note, the other a letter for the church (he mentions this again in the second volume). The final chapter considers Paul’s reception in the church and scholarship, which over the last four hundred years has proven divisive. Johnson concludes, unapologetically, that Paul is no oppressor, but to read his letters in their context and fullness leads to liberation.

The second volume, Interpreting Paul, is a collection of essays, many of which (13 of 23) had been previously published in other venues (p. 2:501). The collection is eclectic, both academic and pastoral, but intentionally covers some aspect of every canonical Pauline letter except Philemon (discussed already in the first volume), which by way of his own proposition, means that each treatment will contain unique features, or what he calls Paul’s “quirky specificity” (p. 2:3). Interpreting Paul is hard to summarize succinctly, since, by design each chapter can stand on its own––a design that fits neatly with Johnson’s thesis that Paul’s theology is complex, variegated, or even purposefully “open-ended” (p. 1:297). He describes the nature of the second volume in his preface to the first volume, “each study tries to demonstrate how many and different questions can be put to each letter, and how rewarding to thought and life the serious engagement with each writing can be” (p. 1:xi). Johnson tackles a variety of subjects from a critique of Bultmann’s chapter on “The Rise of Church Order” (chapter 13) from his well-known Theology of the New Testament to “The Apostle as Crisis Manager,” (chapter 19) using 2 Thessalonians as the jumping-off point for the inquiry.

Though this two-volume work is massive, it is easily readable, particularly the first volume, as it (kind of) serves as an introduction to the second volume, though Johnson hopes that each volume and essay can be read on its own (p. 1:15).

The complete work could be viewed as a sort of introduction to Paul and his letters, though Johnson is careful to note it is not like a traditional Introduction or Theology. Though advocating for the entire canonical Pauline correspondence, admittedly, Johnson’s work may be problematic for conservative Evangelicals. While he adheres to a relatively conservative, traditional understanding of Pauline authorship, he tends also to be more progressive in his views of the authority of Scripture intermingled with current experience. One specific chapter (16) of the second volume, “Doing the Truth in Love,” deserves special mention because I have no doubt it will receive a mixed reception. More conservative scholars will likely be repelled by Johnson’s hermeneutics when it comes to the acceptance of same-sex attraction, particularly since he compares it to Acts 15 and the dispute between Jews and Gentiles, which ultimately led to Gentile inclusion. Though I will not delve into the specifics of the dispute, this chapter demonstrates one way in which Johnson’s reading of Paul may not be as conservative as those who may marshal his work for other conservative causes (like Pauline authorship). Some will also recognize the relative absence of discussion of justification, salvation, or other systematic categories usually associated with the study of Pauline theology (there are a few exceptions). I, for one, am pleased with this absence. Others, I am aware, will not be so pleased. All in all, this work is well worth the reading, and whatever one’s take, Johnson deals with a wide range of subjects that not only consider the Paul of history, but Paul’s place in the life of the modern church as we wrestle with the problems of the modern world.

In sum, it is hard to criticize a work like this, or a scholar like Johnson, aside from whatever disagreements arise naturally when interpreting and applying Scripture, thus I have refrained from any petty criticisms of minutiae. One may wish that these works were more “theological” or that they were more aligned with traditional scholarship. But, if this is Johnson’s last academic work (as he states it likely is; p. 2:xiii), he has laid out for scholarship and the church what he finds most important––that canonical Paul is the Paul that continues to transform the church and that he does so, not as a systematic theologian, but as an innovative thinker working with churches committed to his call as an apostle. Johnson has done that job well. I highly recommend this book for “curious pastors and congregants” (2:11), scholars, and students, particularly those who wish to see a way past what has come to be the academic status quo and to be led in this path by a skilled scholar.