Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Ends of the Earth

"In addition, whenever Paul talks about justification he is also talking about the coming together of Jew and Gentile in Christ. I do wonder whether for many Christians in the Western world that sort of sense of ethnic integration has just not been on their radar screen. Or if it has, it’s been as one distant fragment of the message, rather than something that is front and center. And making it front and center I think is very uncomfortable for many people, not because they’re racists necessarily, but just because there’s a sense that this wasn’t something we thought was as central as that. No doubt we should love all our brothers and sisters in Christ, but it didn’t seem to be as important. For Paul it is radically important, and I think that demands in a lot of people a major category shift which they’re really worried about making."

NT Wright
(Click on the title link for the whole interview)