Book Report James Dunn’s New Testament Theology: An Introduction

Summary of Dunn’s Approach and determining factors in doing NTT

Dunn focus on the canon to doing NT theology. The continuity and discontinuity

between Jewish bible and Christian bible is also the issue to doing NT theology. The author

said, “There can be no doubt that for the NT writers, the OT was a major and determining

factor in their own theologizing. No NT theology can ignore the OT or the profundity of its

influence on the NT.”

Key issues he identifies

He discus central features and key distinctive under four heads throughout the whole

book. These are God: God as one, Salvation: how God saves, Israel: the elect nation, Torah:

how the people of God should live. He discuss that NT theology would be quite possible to

follow the dominant pattern of NT theologies of the last fifty years and examine each NT

writing or group of NT writings in sequence. If the subject matter was a single theme,

Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, ethics, that would be a sensible way to proceed. But if

what has already been said is valid, then it follows that the structure and content of any NT

biblical theology will be decided by the way the questions of continuity- discontinuity and

unity-diversity are handled. The fundamental issue for a NT biblical theology is whether the

message of Jesus or the gospel about Jesus introduced a radical disjuncture with these central

features of what we may fairly call Israel’s biblical theology. God, the one God, creator of the

cosmos and the nations, has committed himself to be Israel’s God, to save and sustain Israel

as his people, and has given them the Torah to show them how they should live as his people.

This means that none of the themes can be treated in isolation from the rest.
The major topics he covers

In Chapter three, the author discuss Christ is the true God and true man. God is

always dealing with his creatures through Jesus like the ancient forefathers of Israel. The

theo-logical givens inherited by the NT can be briefly reviewed under six heads, God as one,

God as Creator and Judge, The god of Israel, God as transcendent and immanent, Angelic

intermediaries and God’s wisdom/ word. A NT theo-logy must include consideration of the

impact made by Jesus an impact that can be measured to a considerable degree by

considering some of the language and imagery they drew upon to make sense of what they

believed had happened to him and what he embodied. Teacher and prophet, Messiah, Son of

Man, Son of God, Lord, Wisdom/ word of God and The worship of Jesus. The author has not

focused attention on the diversity of Christological claims made regarding Jesus. But the

restraint of the Synoptic Evangelists in their portrayal of Jesus should not be ignored. The

unifying focus on Christ as both the name round which the first Christians gathered and as

revealing the ways of God and the character of God more fully than ever before has been

clearly drawn out above. The theologizing of the first Christians did not begin with

themselves. They remembered a Jesus who had prayed to God as his Father and who had

found in the vision of Dan 7:13-14 a source for his expectation of vindication. They did not

need to abandon or to transform his teaching to make it serve as gospel for them, it was quite

sufficient for the Jesus tradition to be held within a framework beginning with the baptism of

John and climaxing in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The theological reflection about Jesus

became more extravagant. Long familiar talk of the angel of the Lord and the Wisdom and

Word of God remind us that earliest Christian reflection on Jesus as the one who reveals God

most clearly both had and drew on such precedents.

In chapter four, the author has sketched the outlines of salvation in broad term in these

opening sentences precisely because the biblical language of salvation displays the same
breadth in both Testaments. The term salvation sums up the help needed, the rescue hoped

for, the condition and situation of one who has survived all such perils and attained to a state

beyond such threatening dangers—the state of having been save. The final salvation is

conceived as a state beyond daily human living, given by God, some kind of utopia or

heaven. The theme of salvation highlights the issues of continuity and discontinuity as

sharply as any other. The recognition of utter dependence on the loving kindness and grace of

God is consistent throughout, and of God’s amazing faithfulness and saving righteousness.

That God makes provision for human salvation, for dealing with failure and transgression is a

red thread that binds both Testaments together. The theme of hope re-emerges even after

seemingly irrevocable disaster. The death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus marked not

only events in time but could be understood as encapsulating the whole process of personal

salvation from beginning to end—Jesus the alpha and omega of salvation.

In Chapter five, the author discuss about being the body of Christ. The tension

between the principle of an elect nation and belief in one God who is God of all and

concerned for all peoples runs from the beginning of the Abrahamic story. It is as evident in

the prophets as in the mission of Jesus: to what extent was the restoration of Israel central to

Jesus’ own conception of his mission, and how “exclusive” was that? The call to be a

blessing to the nations is consistent, and the possibility of a universalism predicted on God’s

mercy is there throughout. If the other side of “the Gentile problem” is “the problem of

Israel,” then the biblical theology of “the church of God” speaks directly to the ongoing

concerns of Jewish/Christian dialogue. It indicates to us not least that the question of the

relationship between Judaism and Christianity, between Jew and Christian, is much more one

of ecumenical dialogue than of evangelistic mission.

In Chapter six, the law is a fourth fundamental issue for biblical theology according to

Dunn. Ethics is the daily expression of theology one of the tests or fruits by which the truth
and value of theology can be witnessed and assessed. Theology is not to be restricted to

statements of and discussions about belief. The religion inculcated in OT and NT embraces

the whole of life not life separated from others not life in the holy place shut off from the

outside world not private as distinct from public life. So ethics is part of theology. And

theology provides the principles and the motivation for ethics. Theology is the logos of

though ethics is the logos of speech, thought coming to expression in action. Without the two

together the former becomes a kind of blundering in the dark.

The meaning of theologizing, NT writer’s doing NT theology and doing Theology today

According to Dunn, theologizing means that we have to reformulate the classic

Reformed antithesis between scripture and tradition. NT writers depended heavily on the OT.

It was essential for them that they should be able to claim and claim vividly and effectively,

that what they were writing was wholly in accord with their scriptures. Today, people are

more and more enlighten and theologizing do not enough if it does not go through or cover

the whole situation such as the tradition, custom, history, etc.

The points I found meaningful

God’s election of Israel does not mean that God is only belongs to Israel. He is the

God of all nations and initiates first to the human to deal with him. God’s liberation grace is

not only deliverance from sin but from the troubles, physical, mental needs There will be a lot

of burden of being Christian in this country. However, God has chosen us and want us to

reflect his image in us. Therefore, I enjoy my life with God even though I’m in happy or

difficult life. We must not forget to be witness.

I have learn that the continuity and discontinuity of OT and NT is really important in

doing NT theology. The author do NT theology by linking the Jewish biblical theology and
Christian biblical theology throughout the whole book. He discuss about the God in OT and

Jesus in NT.