New Testament Theology: Communion and Community.

New Testament Theology: Communion and Community. By Philip F. Esler. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005. Pp. xii + 353. Paper, $40.00.

This book is one of a number of recent works bearing the title New Testament Theology. This work, however, is profoundly different from others bearing the title in many respects. Esler's approach to the question of New Testament theology stakes a middle ground between those who believe that NT theology should only be done in service of the church and those who believe that NT theology should have no necessary relationship to the church. While upholding the validity of the latter position, Esler stresses "I cannot see a problem in occasionally recalling that the relationship Christians have with the New Testament is necessarily different from that of non-Christians" (2). In other words, Esler's book is an attempt to deal with the NT from a Christian standpoint, but he also accepts the usefulness of viewing the NT from the standpoint of its relationship to Western civilization more broadly.

Esler's major problem with NT theology as it is generally practiced is that it is conceived of being the "opposite pole" to systematic theology. Most NT theology assumes that the purpose of the project is to lift out from the NT certain thematic elements that can then be used as the basis of constructing systematic theologies. This approach, however, allows the fruits of biblical theology only "to bear upon the present experience and beliefs of Christians via the link with dogmatic theology" (18). Esler is more interested in how the fruits of biblical scholarship can be brought to bear upon the ordinary experience of Christians. To that end, chapter 2 develops a model of communion based on Martin Buber's famous "I-thou."

Chapter 3 sets out a theoretical argument that persons may be known across the vast time and space gulf that exists between NT authors and modern Christians. Esler argues that persons are trained for cross-cultural contact in the modern world all the time, and such sensitivities to cultural variances are also necessary for understanding ancient Mediterranean Christians.

Chapter 4 contains a detailed argument about the NT texts as "non-literary" texts. Esler argues that the NT texts are written to communicate specific points about early Christian experience. Since they are texts that attempt to communicate specific things, Esler thinks that it is appropriate to treat them as texts that exhibit authorial intention. Using speech-act theory, Esler argues that the NT authors were attempting to effect faith in the readers/hearers. Even when we attempt to understand the original author's intention and the meaning of the communication to the first hearers, however, "it will convey quite different meanings to later readers" (116).

In chapter 5, Esler takes up the work of Schleiermacher in order to construct an understanding of communication between readers of the NT texts and their authors. He argues that Schleiermacher's "hermeneutics was about understanding all discourse, spoken and written, as dialogical interaction between persons to foster communication and understanding" (146). Esler focuses upon a conversational model for reading NT texts.

Perhaps the most innovative element of Esler's book is found in chapters 8-10. Here he develops a model of communion between the authors of NT works and living Christians. Certainly not everyone would accept Esler's definition of communion in the "fullest sense" developed in chapter 10 in which he argues that those who have died in Christ have some ongoing existence that is not full bodily resurrection (which Esler believes will only come at the eschaton) but to which modern Christians have some access. Eslet, however, argues for a number of "naturalistic" options for communion between deceased and living persons in chapter 9. Using social identity theory and the idea of collective memory, Esler suggests that by examining the lives of the saints in their cultural and historic circumstances Christians may "gain afresh sense of how we may be our Christian selves in the world ... Such an appreciation provokes the shock that produces fresh insights and behavioral patterns" (225).

Esler concludes by applying his model to Romans (chapter 12). His book is interesting and insightful at every turn. Among his more important contributions in reading the NT texts as communications between early and later Christians is his insistence that these pieces of communication are open to critique and, like all pieces of communication, do not have to be accepted uncritically to be treated as significant correspondences.

Eric Stewart

Indiana University 

South Bend IN 46628