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The Deliverance of God: Skipping a Few and the Road Ahead

I decided that I am going to skip blogging on chapters four through ten. It's certainly not because they're not interesting or important. Several chapters, like the discussion of sociological research on religious conversion, were absolutely fascinating. I'm making the decision purely on the basis of limited time. The issues I've already discussed on this blog are adequate for having serious concerns about the justification theory of salvation. The chapters I'm skipping either develop further concerns, seek to map out how we got this theory, or discuss methodology. I want to deal from this point on with his interaction with the Pauline texts.

Now that I have a good feel for his methodology and have read a little of his critique of the tradition exegesis of Romans 1-4, I think that I will attempt an independent interpretation of Romans 1-4 - actually I did 1-3 at the library today. Look for that soon (as well as a post on the first section of Song of Songs). After that I'll keep rolling along with the Deliverance of God. I will review his critique of the traditional reading of Romans 1-4 (chapter 11) and then his critique of other non-traditional interpreters (like those who are associated with the NPP) (chapter 12). Starting in chapter 13 Campbell will lay out his interpretation, first of Romans 1-4 and then of the rest of Paul. I will thoroughly dissect those sections posing my own readings of Paul alongside when I disagree, and we will see where we come out at the end.
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