It is not only computers and bodies that catch viruses—minds can also be infected, and the worst sort come in the form of theological aberrations that attack the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. New Perspectives on Paul (NPP) is such an aberration—or heresy, to call it by its proper name.

Waters assesses and counters this “new perspective,” which—in its most virulent form—asserts that the Reformation is a huge blunder: that Martin Luther read Paul through “the framework of late medieval piety,” and misunderstood him—that Paul was really concerned with “the place of the Gentiles in the church and in the plan of God” (p. 24).

Waters traces the development of this deviation back to the destructive theologies of F. C. Baur and the Tübingen school of thought he founded.

While NPP seeks to undercut the whole of Protestant theology, it apparently has gained its largest beachhead among Reformed/Presbyterian churchmen, some of whom are vulnerable to the seduction of higher criticism and the entire liberal theology.

The author writes as an academician to academicians, and therefore can be a difficult read—but a highly worthwhile one!