The platform on which this paper will be built is the
purpose statement of Romans given in class by Dr. Tomlinson,
which is to show that "no distinction" exists in the
"impartial" judicial administration of God-all believing
ones, whether Jew or Gentile, are justified by faith through
the Gospel (Romans 1-11). This lack of distinction should
provoke in us an acceptance of one another, Jew and Gentile
believers in the church (Romans 12-16).
In order to adequately support any purpose statement for
Romans it is necessary to at least survey the vast and varying
approaches by scholars over the years to this subject.
Karl P. Donfried suggests that for centuries, “virtually all scholars
would have agreed with Melanchthon’s evaluation of Romans
as a christianae religionis compendium,”1 but in the realm of
recent scholarship there can be as many purpose statements for
Romans as there are serious readers of Romans, so the task is not
an easy one. In his book, Solving the Romans Debate, A. Andrew Das
appropriately quotes A.J.M. Wedderburn concerning the contention
over the purpose of Romans, “that there should be so
much disagreement over the purpose of Romans is disconcerting
in a letter that has perhaps received more learned attention and
research than almost any other piece of literature in human history.”2
Das, in Solving the Romans Debate3, does a remarkable
job of providing a quick overview of the major theories about
the purpose of Romans that depart from the standard
“Romans as a theological treatise” position mentioned earlier,
which many continue to firmly believe.4
Before moving too quickly from the “standard” understanding of
Romans and into other theories for its purpose, two critical questions
must be asked: Did Paul intend to summarize his theological positions
and, if so, why did he leave out so many important theological
points of interest? More importantly, does an understanding of Romans
as a summary of Paul’s theology answer the question of
whether or not there was a concrete situation that required Paul to
provide such a summary? For any debate on Romans, how one answers
the latter will determine greatly their conclusions as to the purpose of
Romans.
See the remaining Posts: Romans part 3 and Romans part 4
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