The Triumph of God: The Essence of Paul's Thought

This book posits two pillars as the foundations of Paul's thought: 1) the interaction between coherence and contingency in Paul's interpretation of the gospel and 2) the apocalyptic character of his gospel. The author ventures to demonstrate how Paul's interpretation of the gospel as coherent is integral with Paul's communication of the gospel as situationally contingent. These ostensibly opposing perspectives actually combine to form a fluid Pauline hermeneutic. The centrality of Christological apocalyptic in Paul's interpretation is posited and involves a radical shift in traditional conceptions of Paul's theology. The author is "recasting Paul's theology as a theocentric theology of hope rather than as a Christocentric salvation-history (O. Cullmann) or as an existentialist theology of the cross (R. Bultmann). A theology of hope views the present as the dawn of the future and the future as the full actualization of the present." Examining the implications of this approachthe ultimacy of God's sovereignty and triumph beside the Christ-event, the formation of a "biblical-theology," a rethinking of traditional concepts of salvation and ethicsthe author intends to reveal a fresh and most enlightening view of Paul's theology.