Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ:

A Pauline Theology

Thomas R. Scheiner

Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2001.

504 pp. Paperback. $28.00.
Reviewed by Matt O’Reilly

I have recently finished reading Tom Schreiner's Pauline theology, Paul: Apostle
of God's Glory in Christ, and I must say that I found it thoroughly enjoyable.
Schreiner's style is engaging; his scholarship, impressive; his evangelical passion,
refreshing. The book is not without shortcomings, but, all in all, I found it to be
both an informative and pleasurable read.

Schreiner's central claim is that the foundation of Paul's theology is the

"centrality of God in Christ" (18). The conversation in which this volume takes
part has heard a range of voices arguing that the center of Paul's theology is
anything from justification to reconciliation, apocalyptic, salvation history, or the
fulfillment of God's promises. Schreiner argues that to emphasize any of these
important Pauline themes to the neglect others is to do injustice to Paul's
theology and to the God whom Paul preached revealed in Christ who is himself
the justifier, reconciler, revealer, savior, and promise giver. I think Schreiner is
essentially right in his thesis, and his work in this book demonstrates the cogency
of his claim.

The book champions a number of strengths. First, unlike many Pauline

theologies, Schreiner uses all thirteen of the letters attributed to Paul to conduct
his inductive study of Paul's theology. Authentic Pauline authorship of six letters
claiming to be from Paul has been widely disputed by a significant number of
scholars. Many of these arguments suggest that the disputed letters are
theologically inconsistent with the so-called authentic Paulines. One of the major
contributions of this volume is the demonstration of broad theological
consistency across all thirteen of the Pauline epistles. It is easy to see how
scholars who emphasize a particular theme (e.g., justification) as the center of
Paul's theology might conclude that the letters which do not emphasize that them
are not authentically Pauline. Schreiner shows, though, that if the foundation of
Paul's thought is the glory of God in Christ, then all thirteen letters are easily seen
as flowing from the same pen.

Another important contribution is Schreiner's claim that Paul's missionary

vocation was formative for his theology. Paul's missionary vocation has been
regularly neglected in studies of his theology. Schreiner emphasizes the fact that
it was Paul's God given vocation to preach the gospel of Christ that energized his
mission and helped shape his theology. Understanding Paul as a missionary helps
the reader to understand his letters as pastoral wisdom given to particular
churches to ensure their faithfulness to Christ.

Unfortunately, Schreiner reads Paul through Calvinistic lenses which leads him
into several misreadings of important themes in Paul's letters. One of these
misreadings has to do with Paul's theology of election. Schreiner rightly points
out that Paul's theology of election must be understood in light of the Old
Testament scriptures (237), and he rightly notes that "Israel was God's elect
people on whom God placed his favor and love" (237-238). However, Schreiner
forsakes the corporate categories of election of the Old Testament scriptures for
unconditional individual election. He supports this argument by appealing to
various texts, not least of all Romans 9:10-13 where God chooses Jacob and not
Esau. The following objection may be made to reading this text as individual
election to salvation. Paul is quoting Gen. 25 and Mal. 1. Both of these texts
clearly have a corporate or national entity in view. God says to Rebekah, "Two
nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one
shall be stronger than the other and the elder shall serve the younger " (Gen.
25:23). And in Mal. 1:2-3 The prophetic word, "I have loved Jacob, but I have
hated Esau," is directed to the people of Israel. Categories in the Old Testament
texts from which Paul quotes use corporate categories. Schreiner argues against
corporate categories on the grounds that, "the attempt to divide groups and
individuals is logically flawed. Groups are made up of individuals" (245). While
groups and individuals cannot be entirely separated, there is a distinction
between the two. In the Old Testament, proselytes who were formerly outside the
elect community could enter into it while original members of the covenant could
commit apostasy and suffer the curses of the covenant being cut off from their
people. We see that the elect community could remain while the individuals
within the community could change. As a unit, Romans 9-11 contains the most
quotes from the Old Testament in any Pauline passage. The Old Testament
understanding of election cannot be discarded when interpreting this text.

Schreiner's understanding of election is logically related to other misreadings of

Paul's letters. For example, he also affirms that "Genuine faith is always
persevering faith," (272) against the idea that true believers can commit actual
apostasy (cf. 277). I do not have time to interact with this claim in detail, but I
will note that Paul regularly warns the faithful about the possibility of judgment
for faithlessness (Rom. 11:17-23; 1 Cor. 10:1-14). He even appears to note the
possibility of his own apostasy (1 Cor. 9:26-27). Schreiner takes these warnings as
a means of God's effectual grace to give true believers the gift of perseverance
(287-288). In my view, this seems to undermine the reality of the warning.
Again, I must say that I enjoyed this book immensely. I find Schreiner to be a joy
to read even when I disagree with him. This book is a good introduction to
Pauline theology from the Calvinistic tradition within Protestantism. However, it
should not be read as representative of, or even consistent with, the majority of
the history of Christian thought. Many biblically minded and Christ exalting
believers have read the scriptures quite differently. For this reason, Schreiner's
work must be read critically. The book has a great deal to offer, but the reader
should be aware of its significant shortcomings.