Product Description

The 'Dictionary of Paul and his letters' is a one-of-a-kind
reference work. Following the format of its highly successful companion
volume, the 'Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels', this Dictionary is
designed to bring students, teachers, ministers and laypeople abreast of
the established conclusions and significant recent developments in Pauline
scholarship.

No other single reference work presents as much information focused
exclusively on Pauline theology, literature, background and scholarship..
In a field that recently has undergone significant shifts in perspective,
the 'Dictionary of Paul and His Letters' offers a 'summa' of Paul and
Pauline studies. In-depth articles focus on individual theological themes
(such as law, resurrection and Son of God), broad theological topics (such
as Christology, eschatology and the death of Christ), methods of
interpretation (such as rhetorical criticism and social-scientific
approaches), background topics (such as apocalypticism, Hellenism and
Qumran) and various other subjects specifically related to the scholarly
study of Pauline theology and literature (such as early catholicism, the
centre of Paul's theology, and Paul and his interpreters since F C Baur).
Separate articles are also devoted to each of the Pauline letters, to
hermeneutics and to preaching Paul today.

The 'Dictionary of Paul and His Letters' takes its place alongside the
'Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels' in presenting the fruit of
evangelical New Testament scholarship at the end of the twentieth century -
committed to the authority of Scripture, utilising the best of critical
methods, and maintaining dialogue with contemporary scholarship and
challenges facing the church

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179174 in Books
• Published on: 1994-02-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1038 pages

From the Publisher
A companion volume to the 'Dictionary of Jesus and the
Gospels', making available to a wider readership the results of several
decades of Pauline scholarship.

Customer Reviews

Another splendid dictionary from IVP
The best one volume book you can find on the complete writings of Paul. The book covers everything dealing with Paul and his writings, and not one stone is left unturned. Every article is brilliantly written, and informative. I found the articles on Textual Criticism and the various ones on Jesus Christ very helpful to my study. Along with the other three volumes (Jesus and the Gospels, Later New Testament and its development and New Testament background) it makes a good collection to the complete understanding of the New Tesstament. Go out and buy it, and you will not regret it..

Indispensable for New Testament study (not just Paul)
IVP's `Dictionary of Paul and His Letters' (DPL) is a fabulous, `must have' resource for studying Paul himself or the NT letters he penned. IVP have long been ardent supporters of biblical and theological study, offering a plethora of fabulous books, and some software. DPL is just one of these titles.

Remembering that this dictionary focuses quite specifically on `Paul and His Letters', its 1000-page and large format, the size alone shows the breadth of modern scholarship that is made available. (The list of contributors stretches to over three pages.) However, this is a dictionary and does not need to be read from cover-to-cover, it can just be dip into it whenever it's needed.

Although the scholarly input is dizzyingly enormous, none of the vast array of articles are "dry academia", they are all vibrant and modern (even though this is now 16 years old - gasp!) whilst still covering all the theological angles. This means you get the meat of the theology but can still follow the arguments; no mean feat and hugely important.

For instance: if you look up `Works' you'll be re-directed to the `James and Paul' article (among others) for a discussion on justification by works and/or faith: the premise being that Paul says `works of law' (or `good works') are very negative (Gal. 2:16), while James appears to say the opposite: `faith without works [or deeds] is dead' (Jas. 2:26). A four page investigation reveals that `in reality, both James and Paul had similar ideas on the role of good works in the Christian life.' Phew! (The author, P. H. Davids, also notes that conflict arises because we tend to `read Luther into Paul'...)

Following each article there is a `See also' note which lists other especially relevant articles within the dictionary, as well as a (usually) massive bibliography.

If you are serious about understanding Paul and his life and work, as well as the greater New Testament, this dictionary is indispensable: I cannot recommend it enough. If you have more cash and want to go further (within the superb IVP family of dictionaries), these are just as good and as valuable:

Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels
Dictionary of New Testament Background
Dictionary of the later New Testament and Its Developments

All of these are also available digitally, within the stunning and wonderful Essential IVP Reference Collection CD-ROM (or on download from Logos Bible Software). This digital collection represents fantastic value for money - and if you get the an older version of the collection, it may be even cheaper.