Introduction to the Letter to the Romans
St. Paul's Letter to the Romans was written to encourage
and guide Christians in living their lives Christianly, that is, lives formed
by the Spirit in Jesus Christ. It is primarily a text, as are all the documents
of Holy Scripture, directed to living--daily living, ordinary living. There
is nothing "in general" here, nothing programmatic. Paul works
entirely in the context of a congregation of souls, men and women who are
called upon to repent and believe, obey and love, pray and forgive as they
go about their daily lives of preparing meals, raising children, and going
to work.
This needs saying up front, for perhaps more than any other book in the
Bible, Romans has been turned over to the experts. In one sense this is understandable.
Scholars and theologians spend their lives probing its depths and writing
learned books on its theological content-it is clearly a book that challenges
the best minds on the community. All of us would be the poorer without their
devout and disciplined work. What is unfortunate, however, is when the rest
of us disqualify ourselves from reading it firsthand. The scholars are here
to help us read it, not read it for us.
So the first thing we must do is simply start reading
Romans on our own. Everyone who comes to this book needs to be reminded that
Romans is primarily
a work of spiritual formation in a community of souls. This is personal address
to a mixed congregation of Gentiles and Jews, many of them slaves, and most
of whom could not read. Paul's intellect is totally in the service
of men and women like us who are being formed by the Spirit in the life of
Christ. Prepare to be impressed by Romans, but don't be intimidated
by Romans.
Integrated into the text are four aspects of spiritual formation that were
formative in Paul's life and are intended for the formation of our
lives: his submission to Scripture, his embrace of mystery, his particular
use of language, and his insistence on community.
Submission to Scripture
In reading Romans it becomes clear that Paul is not an independent thinker
figuring things out on his own. Nor is he a speculative thinker playing with
ideas, searching for some ultimate truth. His thinking is subordinated to
all that God has revealed of himself and his purposes in Holy Scripture.
Scripture for Paul was the Jewish Bible that we now designate the Old Testament.
As he writes to the Roman congregation Paul's mind is entirely harnessed
to Scripture.
Prideful condescension is often a byproduct of superior minds. It is easy
to assume that a man who writes excellent books ranks higher than a migrant
worker picking fruit; that a woman who manages the financial affairs of a
large corporation is worth more than the woman who cleans the toilets in
a public washroom. But Paul, one of the most competent minds in history,
shows no such arrogance. All his mental processes are subdued and submissive
to what has been handed to him by revelation in Scripture. The words of the
scriptural revelation are the means by which he thinks and prays...
 
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E-newsletter Archive
September/October 2004
