parables of a prodigal world

My friend Christopher over at TaylorWest and I have been engaging in a stimulating conversation, generally about Piper's critique of N.T. Wright in The Future of Justification , but more specifically about some of the overarching methods/assumptions of Wright and other proponents of the so-called "New Perspective on Paul." Christopher threw the ball in my court with the following, and since it brings up an important point that I believe is being marginalized in the overall discussion of the NPP , I thought I'd just devote a post to it: If I’m not mistaken, the NPP can all be boiled down to these two statements:1) We now know, through our research of Second Temple Judaism, that the Jews in Palestine were essentially a faithful people, attempting to please God by living obedient lives through faith in the promises of God. By in large, Israel was not a legalistic nation that was seeking to earn God’s favor by doing the works of the law. Rather, they acknowledged that,...

There has been much commentary on the theological implications stemming from the "New Perspective on Paul," both positive and negative, and usually focusing on the views of N.T. Wright, the most prominent spokesperson of the NPP. Some random samplings from the blogosphere, just from the last few days, can be found here , here , here , here , here , and here . I can join in on the theological musings, analyze the pros and cons of the NPP, but I think others are better equipped to do so. What I wanted to introduce into the debate is this. The NPP was a subset of an overall shift in Christian theology to try to view the New Testament within the 1st century Jewish categories in which it was written. Again, I could ramble on for pages an pages about why that overarching paradigm shift was necessary, but I think the point is better made from a random sampling of Christian art through the centuries. This sampling concerns "the Parable of the Prodigal Son," which happens to...