I am currently reading...

Paul and Palestinian Judaism. This is not a lay-person book. I am still steeped in the world of academia and so the books I read still tend to lean in that direction. That doesn't meant that I don't read less technical books (I read just a couple of weeks ago Come to the Table by Hicks). But the book I'm reading now by E.P. Sanders is a fantastic book for anyone pursuing New Testament studies. As much as I dislike the pedagogy of current preachers to focus primarily on Paul, it is important to understand and try to view from various angles the man who was a trampoline for Christianity in the first century c.e. The focus of the book is a meticulous reassessment of modern (and past) scholarship on 1st and 2nd century Judaism and Paul's understanding of that religion. Sanders maps out the problems New Testament scholars have had with Paul's arguments against Judaism. From there he proceeds to tear down the arguments of those scholars on how to rectify the situation. I am only 100 pages into the 550 beast but I have loved every page so far. Someone might wonder what an Old Testament guy like myself would be doing with a primarily New Testament book. And that's a fair question. Sanders though, like some of his predecessors, uses much of the late b.c.e. literature and early c.e. literature (that is Second Temple literature) to assess Judaism of Palestine in the first century. He reviews Mishnaic literature (both haggadic and halakic) as well as Deuteronocanonical books (i.e. 4 Ezra, Ben Sirach, 1 Enoch, etc.) and Qumran texts to establish what Judaism (at least Tannaitic Judaism) was like then. The main reason for the book is to discredit the argument by countless New Testament scholars that Judaism was a religion of works righteousness. Unfortunately that idea has been passed along (and down) to countless Christians who have bought into the idea that Judaism was a crappy religion and that it never focused on the heart of its adherents. If you are interested in a fair (but scholarly) treatment to the alternative then I highly recommend Sanders' book.