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MICHAEL F. BIRD, The Saving Righteousness of God: Studies on Paul, Justification and the New Perspective (Paternoster Biblical Monographs; Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2007). Pp. xviii + 230. Paper ?19.99.
In this collection of essays, some previously published and some written for the monograph, Bird pursues a dual purpose: to clarify his own thinking on various aspects of justification in Paul and to "offer a conciliatory and mediating position in the current war being waged in Evangelicalism about justification, the New Perspective on Paul, and N. T. Wright" (p. 1). The so-called New Perspective on Paul, launched by the publication of E. P. Sanders's Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (London: SCM, 1977) and developed and refined particularly in the extensive writings of James D. G. Dunn and N. T. Wright, has posed a significant challenge to the traditional Reformed understanding of justification by faith. B., "a card-carrying Calvinist" (p. 2) and lecturer on NT at the Highland Theological College in Dingwall, Scotland, is well suited to the task of addressing...