"Reading" Francis Watson

Two books I thought I should read came in the mail the other day as part of my "SBL discount" order.With the arrival of Paul, Judaism, and the Gentiles: Beyond the New Perspective (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), my collection of Francis Watson's major monographs is almost complete:
(Shoshana is filling in for the one I'm missing: Agape, Eros, Gender: Towards a Pauline Sexual Ethic [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000].)

I read Text, Church and World (Eerdmans, 1994) back in 1999 and liked it so much that I have gradually acquired three more. Unfortunately, acquiring is not the same as reading although it feels satisfying in its own way. I confess that Text and Truth (T&T Clark, 1997), Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith (Continuum, 2004), and Paul, Judaism, and the Gentiles (Eerdmans, 2007) are still waiting for my shipment of "time" to come through.

I did read the preface to Watson's latest two volumes when Paul, Judaism, and the Gentiles arrived. Both are excellent. The latter is a substantial revision of Watson's first book, published in 1986 which itself was a revision of his Ph.D. thesis, defended early in 1984. That makes an 8 year gap between his first two books, and a major, important monograph every 3-4 years since then.