Constantine R. Campbell

There has been a notable, and important, shift toward attempting to better understand Christian faith and practice in terms of some kind of joint participation with God in Christ.

In Paul and Union With Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study, Constantine Campbell presents his study and case for understanding union with Christ for Protestants.

The “exegetical” part of the study featured considerations of all the various ways in which Paul spoke of being “in Christ.” The author show more also considers similar prepositions. Throughout the author has placed a lot of confidence in the ability to come to hard and fast conclusions regarding fine distinctions in grammatical constructions; I do not maintain the kind of faith the author does in the integrity of such exploits. Nevertheless, the author does well to show how often Paul spoke of Christian faith and practice as grounded and rooted “in Christ” in more than a merely metaphorical way.

The “theological” part of the study considered the metaphors Paul used in relation to union with Christ and grounds “union with Christ” in Protestant theology. The author would probably protest such a narrow definition of his task, but at every point possible, the author will staunchly defend his Protestant priors. His attempts to resist the plain language of Paul regarding baptism as the means by which one becomes unified with Christ in Romans 6:1-11, suggesting it is merely metaphorical, and on the basis of such an uncritical reading of 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 that almost any Christian who has encountered the passage could easily refute, was quite telling. The author even feels the need to attempt to redeem and rehabilitate “imputation” as a theological concept, even though he seems cognizant of the many arguments and challenges which are therein presented. When we can all confess “imputation” was one of those times where the Latin translation of the Greek term led to people making inappropriate conclusions - just like is insisted upon and expected in all kinds of Trinitarian doctrinal conversations - we will all be much better off.

The author is correct, and does well, to suggest Paul very much considers union with Christ, with flavors and nuances of union, participation, identification, and incorporation as fundamental in his theology and thus his explication and exhortation regarding Christian faith and practice. This is definitely a resource worth considering when trying to make sense of Paul’s theology; whether or not it becomes the kind of work to which one must make reference and to become the basis of the theological study, as the author seems to expect in his conclusions, I am not so sure. I was expecting a bit more humility and a bit better from the author, admittedly, and so the work is a bit of a disappointment in that regard. show less

Sure, I spent many semesters and countless hours learning and studying Koine Greek while in college and seminary. But what have I done with it since then? Truth be told, the thing I've done the most is to let my skills atrophy. Lately I have been wanting to regain those skills, but I wasn't sure of the best way to go about it. With extremely limited time at my disposal and many responsibilities to manage, I could use some advice. Luckily, I managed to get a copy of Keep Your Greek: show more Strategies for Busy People. (Thank you, Zondervan!) Author Con Campbell provides a number of quick and easy ways to keep up on and even get better at Greek* in only a few minutes each day. I appreciated that he specifically states in the introduction that this is not a formulaic, "10-step" program, nor is it a magic bullet, but rather a list of habits and/or exercises that he has found helpful over the years. Ultimately, this is a pragmatic book: It's about getting back into the Greek NT by taking one, two or three of the ideas Campbell espouses and incorporating them into your daily routine--or even springboarding off of his ideas and creating your own.

This book is an easy and quick read, full of good ideas and resources for Greek. As this book was originally a series of blog posts, Campbell includes the comments he received at the end of each chapter, which (surprisingly to me) added a fresh, new element of interacting with the material. As a bonus, he also takes a look at pros and cons of interlinears, software tools, and other resources commonly used by students. I share his dislike for interlinears and so did not learn much new here, but I did appreciate his comments about software tools, since that is one area I have never investigated using in my own study. Finally, I appreciated the last chapter, wherein Campbell articulates how he uses the techniques mentioned previously in his own personal study. It lends much credence to the author to know that and how he uses his own advice. The only thing I disliked about the book is that some of the tips and tricks mentioned, to my mind, seem like they would take a bit longer than advertised, at least initially.

Overall, this book came just at the right time for me, as one who is seeking to regain his Greek (and Hebrew) skills. Now comes the hard part: Putting it into practice. But I don't think Dr. Campbell or anyone else can help me with that!

*And, of course, the ideas presented apply equally to biblical Hebrew, as well. show less

An introduction, albeit potentially contentious, to the nature of aspect in the Greek verbal system.

He begins with discussions regarding the terms to be used. He helpfully differentiates aspect from Aktionsart and notes how many "aktionsart" items are unhelpfully considered part of aspect (aspect is non-cancelable; aktionsart is more fluid and cancelable). His discussion of the history of how aspect has been understood is vital; it's interesting to see that aspect was not discussed much show more until the 19th century and really has only reached its current point within my lifetime (which is not that long!). It goes a long way to explain why so few grammars have a good, strong, coherent picture of aspect.

The author argues for a primarily "spatial" way of looking at the nature of the Greek verbal system over that of "temporal." He identifies only the future tense as primarily marking time; other tenses mark the aspect of "imperfective" (as if seeing the events as they proceed) or "perfective" (as if seeing the event as a whole, as if above). Present, imperfect, and the perfect are seen as imperfective; aorist and future are seen as perfective.

He then further narrows the function of each "tense" by virtue of proximity or remote: thus present is imperfective and proximate while imperfect is imperfective and remote; aorist is perfective and proximate while future is perfective in terms of remoteness. Perfect / pluperfect intensify proximity and remoteness. The author spends some time discussing form and function and provides many examples. Exercises and their answers are also provided.

There's a lot of great stuff here even if you are not entirely on board with all of the author's premises (I remain a bit skeptical of the future as perfective, but that may be my Hebrew background talking...). An essential work for a more developed understanding of Greek verbal aspect. show less

A thorough and exhaustive survey of all the Biblical verses which explicitly or implicitly conveys Paul's theme of union with Christ within his epistles. Campbell starts with brief discussions of how major Biblical scholars, like Deismann to Barth to Gorman, view union with Christ, defines certain theological concepts like mysticism, sacramentalism, deification, and the "body of Christ," to finally engage the everyplace in Paul's writings where he refers to or suggests union with Christ show more explicitly or implicitly, e.g. "in Christ," "through Christ," "by Him" (i.e. "by Christ"); he even discusses those texts where Paul metaphorically refers to union with Christ as believers being, for example, the "body," "temple," and "building" of Christ.

Campbell then pursues a theological study, that is, the significance of union with Christ as it relates to the work of Christ, the Trinity, Christian ethics, justification, and defines it as participation with, identification, and incorporation into Christ. He even considers union with Christ in relation to eschatology. Campbell closes his exhaustive study making suggestions and directions for future study and research discussing the importance and structure of Paul's theology as it relates to union with Christ.

This is a necessary read for anyone considering a serious study on the topic of union with Christ in the thought of Paul the apostle. Since Campbell, apparently, minutely goes through every verse in Paul's writings on the issue, I contend it should be the first book before any other books relating to a study of union with Christ. show less