A year ago, after doing some reading on the New Perspective on Paul (and getting thoroughly confused by it) I wrote a song about it. I’m sure this must be the first song on the New Perspective! I quickly recorded it planning to come back and polish up the words, singing, drums and guitar parts later, but never got round to it. It looks like I’m never going to find the time to finish it properly, so I’ve put it on my music page in its current form for anyone who’s interested to have a listen. Here’s a direct link to the MP3 (its about 3Mb).

It was inspired by the following article by N T Wright:
http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_New_Perspectives.htm

It’s not intended as an endorsement of the New Perspective on Paul, but the debate over it has raised some important issues. Is it possible that, like the Thessalonian Jews, we can be vigourous defenders of scriptural orthodoxy while at the same time being blind to what it is actually saying.

The lyrics are below (the first line is a quote from NTW)

Verse 1:
Self appointed guardians of orthodoxy
The only way we see it is the way its always been
Calamity is looming for those who leave the path
But those who stay in the way will have the last laugh

Verse 2:
Don’t arrogantly tell me you’ve found a better way
Thanks to all this extra knowledge scholars have today
Our revelation’s final, tradition’s set in stone
So if you don’t agree with us, you’re out there on your own

Bridge:
How could it be wrong
We’ve known it for so long
When all we try to do
Is stick to what is true

Verse 3:
Those who went before us, we love their memory
They dared to speak their minds and they were charged with heresy
We follow in their footsteps, hang on their every word
To think they could have got wrong has got to be absurd

Chorus:
We need to find a new perspective
Admit that sometimes we’ve been wrong
There are some things that we know for certain
But we’ve still got a lot to learn