This chapter lays out the book’s governing thesis - that the differences between the ways traditional Protestant theology and contemporary exegesis read Paul have to do with different assumed implicit narrative substructures of the apostle’s thought. This thesis is introduced and illustrated by studies of Romans 1:1-4 and 1:16-17. The chapter then maps the several strands of Pauline scholarship that this book engages and offers previews of the following chapters.

This chapter offers an analysis of the arguments for and the theological implications of a subjective interpretation of Paul’s notion of “pistis Christou.” The chapter argues that on a subjective reading, the exegetical basis for the tradition Protestant understanding of human faith as the instrumental cause of salvation collapses. At the same time, such a reading does not in and by itself imply an alternative understanding of how one gets to participate in salvation. Moreover, most proposals for a subjective reading stay vague on the presumed content and reference of “pistis Christou.”

This chapter contrasts the traditional Protestant understanding of justification with two rival ways in which contemporary exegetes conceive of the anatomy of God’s justifying act: the salvation-historical proposal of N. T. Wright and the apocalyptic reading of Douglas A. Campbell. Like the reformers, N. T. Wright understands justification as a forensic event. Unlike them, Wright thinks about justification primarily in ecclesiological and eschatological categories. Justification is to be declared a member of the eschatological covenant family. Douglas A. Campbell thinks of justification as a saving rather than a juridical account. To be justified is to be set free and delivered. The chapter argues that, on close analysis, Wright is not as far from Campbell’s position as is usually thought - not least by Wright himself. Wright’s description of what actually happens in justification goes far beyond a juridical declaration. On both the salvation-historical and the apocalyptic account, justification is centered on resurrection and thereby the result of an eschatological divine intervention.