The Death Of The Soul In Romans 7

The monologue of Romans 7 has proved central to the Christian West, where interpreters such as Augustine and Martin Luther have made the text into a paradigm for the plight of mankind, torn between the demands of God's goodness and its own sinful nature. Emma Wasserman argues that the monologue can be better contextualized within certain intellectual discourses alive in Paul's day. In light of certain Platonic traditions about the soul, the monologue emerges as the voice of reason or mind describing its defeat at the hands of passions and desires represented as sin. Especially as developed by Philo of Alexandria, Platonic traditions of representing extreme cases of immorality account for a number of difficult features of the text. Such traditions can account for the metaphors of enslavement, imprisonment, warfare, and death; the representation of the passions as sin and the association with the body, members, and flesh; the Platonic language about mind and the speaker's role in reasoning, reflecting, and judging; the problem of the law in the first part of the monologue (verses 7-13) and the plight of self-contradiction in the second (14-25). The reading thus finds that the speaker is reason or mind, recounting its discovery that it cannot put any of its good judgments into action because of the dominance of the passions.

Have you ever asked yourself what changed when you were "born again?" You look in the mirror and see the same reflection - your body hasn't changed. You find yourself acting the same and yielding to those same old temptations - that didn't seem to change either. So you wonder, Has anything really changed? The correct answer to that question is foundational for receiving from God. If you lack this basic understanding, you'll forever ask yourself doubt-filled questions like: "How could God love somebody like me?" and "How can I possibly expect to receive anything from the Lord? I don't deserve it, I'm not good enough!" Spirit, Soul, and Body will help you eliminate those and other doubt-filled questions that destroy your faith. If you have trouble receiving from God, this is a must-read!

This book provides a solution to one of the Bible's notorious cruxes, the identity of the speaking 'I' of Romans 7.

Building on his own translation from the Greek, Hultgren walks readers through Romans verse by verse, illuminating the text with helpful comments, probing into major puzzles, and highlighting the letter's most inspiring features. He also demonstrates the forward-looking, missional character of Paul's epistle -- written, as Hultgren suggests, to introduce Roman Christians to the major themes of Paul's theology and to inspire in them both confidence in the soundness of his teaching and support for his planned missionary efforts in Spain.

Paul's Letter to the Romans may well be the most influential book in Christian history. In this Romans commentary Colin Kruse shows how Paul expounds the gospel against the background of God's sovereign action as creator, judge, and redeemer of the world. Valuable "additional notes" on important theological themes and difficult texts -- such as Paul's discussion of same-sex relationships, the salvation of "all Israel," and the woman Junia, who was "well known among the apostles" -- further connect Romans to contemporary issues. Throughout his commentary Kruse expertly guides readers through the plethora of interpretations of Romans, providing a reliable exposition of this foundational epistle.

Paul’s letter to the Romans has a long history in Christian dogmatic battles. But how might the letter have been heard by an audience in Neronian Rome? James R. Harrison answers that question through a reader-response approach grounded in deep investigations of the material and ideological culture of the city, from Augustus to Nero. Inscriptional, archaeological, monumental, and numismatic evidence, in addition to a breadth of literary material, allows him to describe the ideological “value system” of the Julio-Claudian world, which would have shaped the perceptions and expectations of Paul’s readers. Throughout, Harrison sets prominent Pauline themes‒‒his obligation to Greeks and barbarians, newness of life and of creation against the power of death, the body of Christ, “boasting” in “glory” and God’s purpose in and for Israel‒‒in startling juxtaposition with Roman ideological themes. The result is a richer and more complex understanding of the letter’s argument and its possible significance for contemporary readers.

In this volume, Nicholas A. Meyer offers a rethinking of the theological frameworks informing the use of traditions of the creation of humankind in the Hodayot and the letters of Paul.