Word of the Cross : Reading Paul

A collection of exegetical, historical, and theological essays on Paul’s letters, including reception history and comparative readings in conversation with other texts.

This collection of Jonathan Linebaugh’s most important work on Paul explores the merciful surprise at the heart of Paul’s gospel: a grace that, while strange and weak in worldly terms, is nothing less than the power of God, full of comfort and promise. Through twelve essays—two of them new—Linebaugh contextualizes and interprets key Pauline passages, does comparative readings of Paul in conversation with early Jewish texts, and enters into dialogue with Reformation theologians such as Martin Luther and Thomas Cranmer. 

Thorough and multifaceted, Linebaugh’s work is at once exegetical, historical, and theological in scope. Accordingly, The Word of the Cross is a rigorous scholarly enterprise that takes seriously Paul’s claim that the good news of Jesus Christ, despite appearing scandalous and foolish, in fact contradicts and overcomes the conditions of the possible through the power of God.

Jonathan A. Linebaugh serves as Anglican Chair of Divinity and professor of New Testament and Christian theology at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University. He is the author or editor of several books, including The New Perspective on Grace, The Word of the Cross, God’s Two Words, and The Well That Washes What It Shows: An Invitation to Holy Scripture.

 

John M. G. Barclay is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University, England. His previous book Paul and the Gift was awarded Book of the Year by Jesus Creed in 2015. He was elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy in 2020.