A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
By Fred Zaspel
Until I saw this book it never occurred to me that its subject had received such little attention previously. “Paul as Pastor” lingo is not uncommon, but an analysis of Acts and Paul’s epistles to draw out the nature of his pastoral heart and work was all but completely absent.
From the Preface
There are good reasons to focus on Paul’s work as a pastor. If Paul is an apostle, it is with the purpose of bringing Gentiles into full allegiance and obedience to God (Rom.15.19). If Paul is a missionary, his goal is not only to save the lost (1Cor. 9.22) but to present every person mature in Christ (Col. 1:28). If Paul is a theologian, his vision of the divine-human relationship is never without practical and pastoral implications. Paul as Pastor has been written in the hope that it will help to revive interest in the academic study of Paul’s pastoral practice to the benefit and encouragement of pastors today and those who teach them.
Table of Contents
- The Household Setting of Paul’s Pastoral Practice and its Biblical and Jewish Roots
Brian S. Rosner - Paul as Pastor in Acts: Modeling and Teaching Perseverance in the Faith
Alan J. Thompson - Paul as Pastor in Romans: Theological Foundations
Colin G. Kruse - Paul’s Pastoral Sensitivity in 1 Corinthians
Matthew R. Malcomb - Paul as Pastor in 2 Corinthians
Paul Barnett - Pastoring with a Big Stick: Paul as Pastor in Galatians
Michael F. Bird and John Anthony Dunne - Paul and Pastors in Ephesians: The Pastor as Teacher
Peter C. Orr - Paul and Pastors in Philippians: When Staff Teams Disagree
Sarah Harris - Paul as Pastor in Colossians
Andrew S. Malone - Mother, Father, Infant, Orphan, Brother: Paul’s Variegated Pastoral Strategy towards His Thessalonians Church Family
Trevor J. Burke - Paul as Working Pastor: Exposing an Open Ethical Secret
Robert W. Yarbrough - The Pastoral Offices in the Pastoral Epistles and the Church of England’s First Ordinal
Tim Patrick - Augustine of Hippo on Paul as Pastor
Andrew M. Bain - ‘He Followed Paul’: Whitefield’s Heroic, Apostolic, and Prophetic Voice
Rhys S. Bezzant
So far as I am aware, this book is one of a kind – a collection of essays analyzing “Paul as Pastor” (with three additional historical case studies). It’s a dimension of study that was needed and that is eminently useful for the pastor’s own enrichment and for the enriching of his expositions of the many, many Pauline passages examined in this book. A genuine contribution to New Testament and Pastoral studies.