Stephen Burnhope's Atonement and the New Perspective: The God of Israel, Covenant, and the Cross is an excellent example of the difference historical context makes to biblical studies and then, further, to theological dogmatics. What sort of doctrine of atonement, Burnhope asks, might emerge from a
reading of the New Testament that presupposes a fundamental continuity
between Jewish and Christian thought rather than a sharp disjunction
between Law and grace? What would a reformed Reformed dogmatics look
like? Burnhope takes on the shortcomings of dogmatics reading categories back into the text, and instead advocates for a reformed dogmatics that takes the Bible from within its own historical context seriously.
Chapter 2 offers one best surveys of recent "new perspectives" on the relation of early Christianity to first-century Judaism that I've ever read. Burnhope reviews the old Lutheran perspective on Paul, the intensification of the denigration of theological Judaism in the nineteenth century, and the dawning of a new perspective through the work of Claude Montefiore, G.F. Moore, W.D. Davies, Krister Stendahl and, of course, E.P. Sanders. And the work of N.T. Wright and J.D.G. Dunn are considered in particular detail. But I'm excited to see how he deals with those New Testament scholars who are currently working in the field -- Gaston, Gager, Nanos, Fredriksen, Levine, Eisenbaum, Elliott, Runesson, Campbell, Ehrensperger, and Stowers -- who explore some of the healthier ways that Judaism and Christianity were related in the first century.
Chapter 3 is a model for how theologians might talk about that relationship and the ultimate "parting of the ways" between Judaism and Christianity. Here, he offers the heart of the book in developing a post-New Perspective of the atonement. In the end, this book is one of the best constructions of atonement as a covenantal act that I've ever read.
The only real shortcoming I note is that the book doesn't deal very adequately with the apocalyptic material in the New Testament, and working that material into a covenantal perspective. I think that apocalyptic-covenental context presents some of the most fertile ground in which to toil over the question of "atonement" and what it means. The New Perspective has recovered the Jewishness of the New Testament, and that's something theologians need to take more seriously. That's precisely what Burnhope does.
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I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.