Four Views on the Apostle Paul: Audio Lectures

18 Lessons on Reformed, Catholic, 'Post-New Perspective,' and Jewish Understandings of Paul

De: Michael F. Bird, Douglas A. Campbell, Mark D. Nanos, Luke Timothy Johnson, Thomas R. Schreiner

Narrado por: Michael F. Bird, Douglas A. Campbell, Mark D. Nanos, Luke Timothy Johnson, Thomas R. Schreiner

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio-learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, Four Views on the Apostle Paul: Audio Lectures include high quality live-recordings of college-level lectures that cover the important points from each subject as well as relevant material from other sources.

The apostle Paul was a vital force in the development of Christianity. Paul's historical and religious context affects the theological interpretation of Paul's writings, no small issue in the whole of Christian theology.

Recent years have seen much controversy about the apostle Paul, his context, and its effect on his theology. In Four Views on the Apostle Paul: Audio Lectures, four leading scholars present their views on the best framework for describing Paul's theological perspective, including his view of salvation, the significance of Christ, and his vision for the churches.

Views include:

• Reformed View: Thomas R. Schreiner
• Catholic View: Luke Timothy Johnson
• Post-New Perspective View: Douglas Campbell
• Jewish View: Mark D. Nanos

Four Views on the Apostle Paul: Audio Lectures gives students the tools they need to draw informed conclusions on debates about Paul. New Testament scholar Michael F. Bird also covers foundational issues and provides helpful summaries in his introduction and conclusion.

New Testament scholars, pastors, and students of Christian history and biblical theology will find Four Views on the Apostle Paul: Audio Lectures, an indispensable introduction to ongoing debates on the apostle Paul's life and teaching.

©2019 Michael F. Bird, Douglas A. Campbell, Mark D. Nanos, Luke Timothy Johnson, and Thomas R. Schreiner (P)2019 Zondervan

Out of Order

Was a little confused when I started this because I know the authors voices, Timothy l johnson was the first speak and is responding to a previous speaker, though he’s the first speaker. This is good information, it’s liquid gold, but the order is not correct.

Author intro needs help

It was an amazing book, however, I would have liked for the author to state their name prior to talking.

wrong order!!

1c, 2c, 3c, 4c (i.e., the "long ones") should have been placed FIRST (as 1, 2, 3, 4).

You should fix this!

Understanding Biblical Perspectives

This Audiobook provides great insight about the apostle Paul from 4 different biblical perspectives.

A compliment to the book only

This was a nice extremely short 1/36th compliment to the book, if that. Notice the run time of less than 3 hours. You would need to be very familiar with the book to get anything from this resource. Again, as with all of these “four views”, the editor is at fault, by simply not doing any work at all, save handing out the rules for the contest. Great work by the Authors, less than zero stars for the editor. If your not able to place names on chapters, do the listener the favor of at least introducing them. It would be nice to know who is talking! Wow.

Quality but the order is wrong

The quality of the different authors was fine and their responses were well thought out. However, we have the responses to someone’s position in the beginning prior to us hearing what the position actually is. This is confusing and it makes it more difficult to follow the retorts. Recommend the editor adjust to have retorts after the positions are made.

Book content is good, but chapters are out of sequence

The chapters are out of order. The chapters headings are correct (though not read out, so there's no context for whose section is being presented without looking), but the responses are given first, then the argument. It's a simple fix from Audible that would greatly change the quality of the audiobook.

Audio quality is okay. The authors who wrote it presented their own sections, so audio levels and clarity of speech differ, but it is understandable throughout.

Also, the audio provided is considerably different from the text of the book. They seem to cover the same themes, but using different rhetoric and even arguments.

Disappointed

Audio Files and Structure Jumbled. After listening to the Introduction, this listener found the main body of the audio book are out of order. The first file to play after the Introduction is "1 - Paul: A Reformed Reading"; however, this is actually a response to one of the four main lectures representing a point of view. What plays first, then, are three responses and then the view. This jumbled format continues through the whole of the book, requiring the listener to manually decipher which files to play first without clarity regarding who the respondent is.

Editing and Content Reduction. Once the listener figures out how to listen to the views and responses, another problem occurs. The main lectures seem to have been based on a paper and a longer lectures, but the producers of the audio book edit the original lectures down to such a degree that when you listen to some responses, the criticism is of content that we the listeners have not heard and are, thus, not familiar with.

Off Script. Another issues is that the presenters were asked to respond to three main issues, Paul's views of: (1) Christ, (2) salvation, and (3) the church. Unfortunately not all the presenters stick to the script. Indeed, in the case of one presenter, what we hear instead is a lecture about the centrality of Romans 5-8. While the intent seems to have been to see where different perspectives align or diverge on these three main points, unfortunately, in conclusion no meaningful synthesis of the four perspectives emerges.

The four views selected clearly begin with different methodologies. Given that the whole audio book is so very short, some reflection, perhaps on the part of the editors, would be welcome.

I liked the intent of the lectures and enjoyed listening to two of them, as short as they are, but had hoped for a bit more than what we delivered.

This recording is defective

This is a book that is intended to have presentations followed by responses. The actual recording has the responses preceding the presentations. Confusing and unsatisfying.

Incoherent mess

I found this unintelligible, which is a shame because after listening to the intro, i was really looking forward to listening to the lectures. Unfortunately, the opening lecturer is so referential to fact of the others' prior arguments that the points aren't clear and the rebuttals aren't any better. It was gibberish. Maybe if I stuck with it longer, some of the other lectures would be more intelligible, but why bother? There are so many other things to listen to.