The Theo-Logic of Paul's Ethics in Recent Research: Crosscurrents and Future Directions in Scholarship in the Last Forty Years

Abstract

This essay presents a survey of scholarship on the theology or logic (hence `theo-logic') of Paul's ethics in the last forty years. Exploring the work of such prominent Pauline scholars as V.P. Furnish, P. Sampley, W. Schrage, R. Hays and D. Horrell, attention will be drawn to their contributions as well as future desiderata in this field. An important conclusion drawn from this study is that Furnish's work is a milestone in Paul's theo-logic of ethics especially with regard to eschatological, Christological and sociological dimensions, and subsequent Pauline interpreters have largely expanded on his work. Such elaborations, though, have often been necessary and welcome as new trends in scholarship have yielded great insights not possible in the late 1960s when Furnish penned his tome.