
James D. G. ("Jimmy") Dunn (born 1939) was for many years the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the Department of Theology at the University of Durham. Since his retirement he has been made Emeritus Lightfoot Professor. He is a leading British New Testament scholar, broadly in the Protestant tradition. Dunn is especially associated with the New Perspective on Paul, along with N. T. (Tom) Wright and E. P. Sanders. He is credited with coining this phrase during his 1982 Manson Memorial Lecture. Dunn has an MA and BD from the University of Glasgow and a PhD and DD from the University of Cambridge. For 2002, Dunn was the President of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, the leading international body for New Testament study. Only three other British scholars had been made President in the preceding 25 years. In 2005 a festschrift was published dedicated to Dunn, comprising articles by 27 New Testament scholars, examining early Christian communities and their beliefs about the Holy Spirit. (edited by Graham N. Stanton, Bruce W. Longenecker & Stephen Barton (2004). The Holy Spirit and Christian origins: essays in honor of James D. G. Dunn. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. ISBN 0-8028-2822-1.) Dunn has taken up E. P. Sanders' project of redefining Palestinian Judaism in order to correct the Christian view of Judaism as a religion of works-righteousness. One of the most important differences to Sanders is that Dunn perceives a fundamental coherence and consistency to Paul's thought. He furthermore criticizes Sanders' understanding of the term "justification", arguing that Sanders' understanding suffers from an "individualizing exegesis".
Series
Books

Unity and Diversity in the New Testament
An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity
1977

The Justice of God
A Fresh Look at the Old Doctrine of Justification by Faith
1994

Parting of the Ways
Between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity
1991

The Theology of Paul's Letter to the Galatians
1993

Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels
2011

Christology in the Making
A New Testament Inquiry Into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation
1980

The New Perspective on Paul
1983

New Testament Theology
An Introduction
2010

The Cambridge Companion to St Paul
2003

Neither Jew nor Greek
A Contested Identity
2015

A New Perspective on Jesus
2005

Jesus, Paul and the Law
1990

Jesus and the Spirit
A Study of the Religious and Charismatic Experience of Jesus and the First Christians as Reflected in the New Testament
1997

The Living Word
1987

Beginning from Jerusalem
Christianity in the Making, Volume 2
2008

Jesus Remembered
Christianity in the Making, Volume 1
2003

Baptism in the Holy Spirit
1970

The Evidence for Jesus
1986

The Theology of Paul the Apostle
1997

The Oral Gospel Tradition
2013

The Epistle to the Galatians
1993

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible
2003

Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?
The New Testament Evidence
2010

Jews and Christians
The Parting of the Ways, A. D. 70 to 135
1992

The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon
1996