James Dunn (theologian)

James D. G. "Jimmy" Dunn FBA (born 21 October 1939)^[1] is a British New Testament scholar who was for many years the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the Department of Theology at the University of Durham, now Emeritus Lightfoot Professor. He has worked broadly within the Protestant tradition.

Dunn has an MA and BD from the University of Glasgow and a PhD and DD from the University of Cambridge. For 2002, Dunn was the President of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, an international body for New Testament study. Only three other British scholars had been made President of the body in the preceding 25 years. In 2006 he became a Fellow of the British Academy.

In 2005 a festschrift was published dedicated to Dunn, comprising articles by 27 New Testament scholars, examining early Christian communities and their beliefs about the Holy Spirit.^[2]

Dunn is especially associated with the New Perspective on Paul, along with N. T. (Tom) Wright and E. P. Sanders. He is credited with coining this phrase during his 1982 Manson Memorial Lecture,^[3] although he himself admitted that it was Wright who already used the term in his 1978 Tyndale Lecture, where Dunn was sitting on the front row.^[4]

Dunn has taken up Sanders' project of redefining Palestinian Judaism in order to correct the Christian view of Judaism as a religion of works-righteousness. One of the most important differences to Sanders is that Dunn perceives a fundamental coherence and consistency to Paul's thought. He furthermore criticizes Sanders' understanding of the term "justification", arguing that Sanders' understanding suffers from an "individualizing exegesis".

He is a minister of the Church of Scotland and a Methodist local preacher.

Works

Dunn has written or edited numerous books and papers, including:

Books

• Dunn, James D. G. (1970). Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Studies in Biblical Theology Second Series. 15. London: SCM Press. 
• ——— (1975). Jesus and the Spirit. London: SCM Press. 
• ——— (1985). The Evidence for Jesus. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press. ISBN 978-0-664-24698-3. 
• ——— (1980). Christology in the making: a New Testament inquiry into the origins of the doctrine of the incarnation. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press. ISBN 0-664-24356-8. 
• ——— (1988). Romans 1-8, 9-16. Waco, TX: Word Books. ISBN 0-8499-0252-5. 
• ——— (1990). Jesus, Paul, and the law: studies in Mark and Galatians. Louisville, KY: Westminster, John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-25095-5. 
• ——— (1990). Unity and diversity in the New Testament: an inquiry into the character of earliest Christianity. London: SCM Press. ISBN 0-334-02436-6. 
• ——— (1991). The Partings of the Ways between Christianity and Judaism and their Significance for the Character of Christianity. London: SCM Press. ISBN 0-334-02508-7. 
• ——— (1993). The Epistle to Galatians. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 1-56563-036-X. 
• ———; Suggate, Alan M. (1994). The justice of God: a fresh look at the old doctrine of justification by faith. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0797-6. 
• ——— (1996). The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: a commentary on the Greek text. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-2441-2. 
• ——— (1998). The theology of Paul the Apostle. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-3844-8. 
• ———, ed. (2003). The Cambridge companion to St. Paul. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-78694-0. 
• ———; Rogerson, John W., eds. (2003). Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-3711-5. 
• ——— (2003). Christianity in the Making: Vol. 1, Jesus Remembered. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-3931-2. 
• ——— (2005). A New Perspective On Jesus: What The Quest For The Historical Jesus Missed. Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. ISBN 0-8010-2710-1. 
• ——— (2007). The New Perspective On Paul. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-4562-2. 
• ——— (2008). Christianity in the Making: Vol. 2, Beginning from Jerusalem. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-3932-0. 
• ——— (2009). The Living Word (second edition). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-6355-1. 
• ——— (2010). Did the first Christians worship Jesus?. London - Louisville, KY: Society for promoting Christian knowledge. ISBN 978-0-281-05928-7. 
• ——— (2011). Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-6645-5. 
• ——— (2013). The Oral Gospel Tradition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-6782-7. 
• ——— (2015). Christianity in the Making: Vol. 3, Neither Jew nor Greek: A Contested Identity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-3933-6. 

References

External links

• Professional page, Durham University
• The New Perspective on Paul
• James D.G. Dunn in-depth interview on "Beyond Evangelical"