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Paul's Theology: Consistent or Inconsistent?*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
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. Recent discussions of Paul's theology have reached a virtual consensus that Paul is not a dogmatic theologian, but rather an interpreter of the gospel. In this light we would expect that the tendencies of the history of Christian thought to discover a dogmatic ‘Mitte’, from which all other elements of his thought can be deduced, would have ceased. And yet the immense dogmatic pressure of the Christian tradition still persists: with their search for ‘die Mitte’ of Paul's thought which they locate in justification by faith and/or in the righteousness of God, both Barth and Käsemann show that the dogmatic quest of the church from the time of Augustine to Luther and Calvin is still alive.
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References
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page 376 note 2 The twin motifs of apocalyptic glory (ch. 15) and church-unity constitute also the coherent motifs of 1 Cor, albeit under quite different contingent circumstances.
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