WHEN the history of biblical scholarship in the 20th and 21st centuries comes to be written, a strong case will be made for seeing Richard B. Hays as the leading American New Testament scholar of his generation. The word “leading”, sometimes used in a vague, arm-waving fashion, is meant here in its precise sense. Many careful and wise scholars have provided food for thought and further study. There are not so many who have opened doors that others had not even noticed, shining a light down an unanticipated but exciting pathway, and enticing others to follow.
The reason why Richard Hays saw doors where others had only seen walls owes a good deal to his particular combination of underlying theology and early training. Theologically, Richard recognised (as Reformed theology in general has long done) that an easy-going use of the phrase “justification by faith” could easily give the impression that “faith” — saying a prayer, coming to believe in Jesus, whatever — was a form of “work”: something which a person “does” to earn God’s favour. For Paul, however, the vital move — the salvific action — was not something “we” do, but something God does, in and through the work of Jesus: the faithful work of Jesus.
Read the whole thing in Church Times.
