I will never forget the question I asked N.T. Wright on 8 January 2009, and his somewhat agnostic reply. My question was in response to a statement he made during one of the sessions of a module he taught at St’ John’s College, Durham University. His statement went something like this: “Luther got it wrong about justification.” (Nothing new about this – we all know Wright has said and written this before). My question went something like this: “But what about Calvin?” He did not really answer the question, though to be fare, there were several questions from others he had to answer as well. I can of course be wrong (and I do have enormous respect for Wright!), but after the session I wondered whether he has ever read Calvin’s Institutes.With this as background I was quite surprised and delighted when Kevin Vanhoozer, an erudite Reformed systematic theologian from Wheaton College made the following statement at the Jesus, Paul, and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N.T. Wright conference, held at Wheaton College on 16-17 April 2010:
“What Calvin does with Paul’s union with Christ provides fertile ground for a meeting of 'Old' and 'New' Perspective minds.”
I really enjoyed listening to Vanhoozer’s paper and wonder whether Wright will dialogue with Calvin in his forthcoming volume on Paul? I believe it is fair to say that Vanhoozer was nuanced in his approach and that his insights contributed to a fruitful discussion. (cf. he also said: “My aim is to encourage peace-talks between New Perspectives and old protestants”).Video’s and Audio’s of all the papers delivered at the conference can be downloaded here:
http://www.wheaton.edu/wetn/lectures-theology10.htm
I would encourage Reformed Christians to listen to Vanhoozer’s paper in particular. (He started dealing with Calvin at round about 25 minutes in his presentation).
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