Professor Stanley K Stowers Romans Paperback sku-33551328

A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles is a paperback by Professor Stanley K Stowers, listed in Religion & Religious Studies Books under SKU sku-33551328. Paul's letter has influenced Christian discussions of sin, salvation, guilt, fear of God and gratitude for God's mercy since Augustine. Stowers argues that Christian tradition has read Romans differently from readers in Paul's time.

He places the letter in its social, historical and rhetorical setting and argues that Paul, a Jew immersed in Hellenistic culture, addressed gentiles rather than Jews. In his reading, salvation is not the letter's central issue: Jesus restrained his messianic powers in faithfulness to his mission and God's promises, giving gentiles an opportunity for redemption.

God demonstrated justice by raising Jesus and creating a new kinship through the Spirit, leading gentiles toward moral and psychological self-mastery. Stowers argues that observing Jewish law does not provide the acceptance they seek, and that Romans neither answers human sinfulness nor presents Christianity as a religion of salvation.

His reading revisits the relation between Paul's Christianity and Judaism, faith and the significance of Jesus Christ.