Thanksgiving : An Investigation Of A Pauline Theme

Series Preface
Author’s Preface
Abbreviations

1. Thanksgiving As God-Centeredness
2. Thanksgiving Within The Covental Traditions
3. Thanksgiving And Covenantal History
4. A Life Of Thanksgiving
5. Thanksgiving And The Future
6. Ingratitude

Appendix: Pauline Thanksgiving And The Greco-Roman Benefaction System
The Greco-Roman Patron-Client Network
Gratitude In The Patron-Client Relationship
Pauline Thanksgiving And The Patronage Model

Bibliography
Index Of Modern Authors
Index Of Biblical References And Ancient Sources
Index Of Subjects

Additional Info
Be thankful (Colossians 3:15) is a recurring exhortation in the letters of the apostle Paul. No other New Testament writer gives such a sustained emphasis on thanksgiving-and yet, major modern studies of Paul fail to wrestle with it.

David Pao aims to rehabilitate this theme in this comprehensive and accessible study, a New Studies in Biblical Theology volume. He shows how, for Paul, thanksgiving is grounded in the covenantal traditions of salvation history. To offer thanks to God is to live a life of worship and to anticipate the future acts of God, all in submission to the lordship of Christ. Ingratitude to God is idolatry. Thanksgiving functions as a link between theology, including eschatology, and ethics.

Here Pao provides clear insights into the passion of an apostle who never fails to insist on the significance of both the gospel message and the response this message demands.

Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.