Book Review: "The Future of Justification", John Piper.

This is a short review of "The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T Wright" published by Crossway, 2007 and written by the able Reformed baptist scholar and pastor - John Piper.

This work is typical Piper, rigorous, exegetical and completely immersed in the most up to date secondary literature on the subject he is taking on. The thesis of the book is to expose the novel views of the Anglican scholar N.T Wright (especially Wright's understanding of justification). Wright's epiphany on justification while reading Romans in the 70's is now legendary. Everyone got it wrong he tells us. St. Paul is not attacking a "works righteous" system but rather, false ethnocentric "badges." Justification then for Wright is God recognizing people as either in the covenant community or not.

This proposition then leads to many other conclusions in Wright, mainly that works play a much more important role than what is usually assigned to it by Protestantism. Following the New Testament, Wright sees the entirety of a Christian's life as the substance of what will be judged by God in the last day. [1]

As expected, Piper being true to his Protestant ideals goes to town on Wright. Wright has placed himself outside of "traditional Protestantism" and has allied himself with the academic school of the "New Perspective" on Paul, (with figures such as E. Sanders, James Dunn, R.B Hays, etc). Wright denies the classical Protestant formulation of imputed Christ righteousness, Piper argues and he gives a long litany of proofs from Wright's writings.

While I disagree with Piper with many of his exegetical and theological conclusions, one argument in my opinion convincingly refutes Wright. Piper unmasks Wright's view on justification for what it is, namely an unprecedented novel claim, unseen in the entire history of the church. [2] This argument I find very ironic when used at the hands of Protestant scholars. [3]

In conclusion, The Future of Justification is one of the better refutations of Tom Wright from a "tradtional Protestant" standpoint.

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[End notes]

[1]. What I found interesting was Wright's similarity to St. Augustine on the role of works in faith.

[2]. Wright not only acknowledges this but embraces it. He is only being true he tells us, to Luther's maxim, semper reformanda at no matter what the cost. "Here I stand" claims Wright, against both the Protestant and Catholic claims on justification. And who is there to tell me otherwise asks Wright, since as Protestants we adhere to sola Scriptura and thus, conscience is Wright's only authority. Wright's attitude on tradition is an especially disturbing trend in Anglicanism. The modern Anglican scholar is a lover of experimentation and new teachings.

[3]. I have even read Protestant refutations of radical Protestant claims that were entirely lifted from Catholic scholars that first employed them against Protestantism!