Paul's Message and Ministry in Covenant Perspective : Selected Essays

A collection of essays from a prominent Pauline scholar, showing how Paul's eschatology was central to his understanding of his mission. Erudite and authoritative, Paul's Message and Ministry in Covenant Perspective is the fruit of twenty-five years of scholarship about the theology and life of the apostle Paul, now made available for the first time to a wider audience. Confronting the questions raised by the history of Pauline thought since F.C. Baur, Scott J. Hafemann's essays focus on how Paul's self-understanding shaped everything, from his message to the driving force behind his ministry, and his consequent call to suffer for the sake of his churches. Hafemann's work reveals that Paul's views of redemption, of his own redemptive mission, and of the life of the redeemed all derived from a central point: his eschatological conviction that the purpose of the new covenant established by Jesus was to prepare the way for when Christ returns on Judgement Day.