A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles [Paperback]

Professor Stanley K. Stowers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0300070683 | ISBN-13: 978-0300070682

Paul's Letter to the Romans is one of the most influential writings of Christian theology. From the time of Augustine it has been central in discussions about sin and salvation, about guilt, fear of God, and gratitude for God's mercy. In this groundbreaking reinterpretation, Stanley Stowers argues that Christian tradition has interpreted Romans in an anachronistic fashion fundamentally different from how readers in Paul's time would have read it. He provides a new reading that places Romans within the sociocultural, historical, and rhetorical contexts of Paul's world. Stowers challenges the idea that salvation is the central issue of Paul's letter and that the letter's addressees include Jews. In Stowers's reading, Paul, a Jew immersed in Hellenistic culture, is addressing his letter to an audience of gentiles. Paul says that in faithfulness to his mission and God's promises, Jesus restrained his messianic powers, allowing an opportunity for gentiles to be redeemed. Thus God demonstrated his justice and, by raising Jesus, created a new line of kinship by the Spirit that will lead gentiles to moral and psychological self-mastery. The acceptance and self-mastery that gentiles seek is not to be found in observing teachings from Jewish law. According to Stowers, Romans neither offers an answer to human sinfulness nor presents Christianity as a religion of salvation. Stowers thus reinterprets the relation of Paul's Christianity to Judaism, the meaning of faith, and the significance of Jesus Christ.

Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (February 27, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300070683
• ISBN-13: 978-0300070682
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #858,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The grammar of Paul, May 14, 2003

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CER (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles (Paperback)

I thought that Stowers approach adds a dimension to the discussion about the new perspective on Paul. His attention to how a Greek speaking Gentile would read Paul's epistle is excellent. The book clearly highlights how modern tendencies to read the Bible in the "plain sense" can be hugely mistaken. His focus on who the epistle was written to and what cultural frame of reference they had is very clear. The focus on grammar and on cultural references of Gentiles exceeds simple lexical approaches. Romans was written by a Jew who straddled the growing divide between Judaism and Gentile believers in a Jewish messiah.

I really liked this book, it's full of notes about translational biases that color every approach to the epistle. I would add that Gaston's translation of Romans in his book Paul and Torah is a useful comparison. This book is not for the timid reader of Paul. You have to study it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A game-changing book on Romans, April 19, 2010

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deafguy "deafguy" (OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles (Paperback)

A Rereading of Romans is a truly eye-opening look at Paul's most influential letter. There are many commentaries out there on Romans that all say basically the same thing. Stowers' book is completely different. Stowers is one of the few authors to seriously ask how readers in Paul's time (before there were any "Christians" or "Christianity"--Paul never uses those words) would have understood this letter. Stowers shows how modern translations (and even the critical Greek text underlying the translations) have been affected by Christian traditions of interpretation. He demonstrates how various parts of the letter can be radically reinterpreted if read through the lens of ancient rhetorical tools available to Paul's original audience rather than through the (later) lenses of Christian systems of sin and salvation. The argumentation and documentation are thorough, which can make the book a little dense at times, but reading it is worth the effort. It is a remarkable book that deserves to be read by anyone really interested in Paul's letters or early Christianity more generally.