READING ROMANS THROUGH THE CENTURIES: FROM THE EARLY CHURCH TO KARL BARTH

Written by Jeffrey P. Greenman and Timothy Larsen (eds) Reviewed By Michael F. Bird

This volume is a partial analysis of the reception-history of Paul’s epistle to the Romans. The aim of the book is to ‘focus on thinkers whose engagement with Romans has been substantial and whose work illuminates wider movements in the church’s theological development’ (15). The various contributors evaluate ancient commentators including Ambrosiaster, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Calvin, John Wesley, Charles Hodge, John William Colenso, and Karl Barth.

The book has certain highlights which are worth mentioning. Gerald Bray commends Ambrosiaster as a sane exegete in an age of allegorical speculation who also possesses an acute awareness of the Jewish background of Romans. Christopher Hall focuses on Chrysostom’s sermons on Romans and topics such as Chrysostom’s synergistic understanding of sin and free will. Pamela Bright combs through Augustine’s many writings and shows how Romans was used to illuminate Augustine’s idea of grace. Aquinas is examined by Steven Boguslawski who detects in Aquinas a fundamental unity of theological and exegetical inquiry in Romans. Timothy George (in probably the best chapter in the volume) narrates the discovery of Luther’s missing manuscript Lectures on Romans in the early 20th century and describes the role of Romans in Luther’s formulation of justification by faith. Jeffrey Greenman attempts to do justice to William Tyndale as an underrated commentator on Romans by highlighting Tyndale’s efforts to reconcile Law and Gospel through Romans. According to David Demson the motif underpinning Calvin’s commentary on Romans is the mercy of God in Christ. Victor Shepherd draws attention to Wesley as one who interpreted Romans as Paul’s attempt to write of the excellency of the gospel. Mark Noll shows how Charles Hodge found in Romans a robust defence of Reformed orthodoxy in the face of New School Presbyterianism. Timothy Larsen spells out how the maverick Anglican Bishop John W. Colenso turned Romans into a manifesto for liberal theology. Finally, John Webster attempts to revive interest in Barth’s Römerbrief as a genuine commentary on Scripture and not purely an exercise in irregular dogmatics or a hermeneutical manifesto by Barth.

Critically speaking the volume would have benefited from the inclusion of Origen, Pelagius and John Locke to name a few as well as at least one or two indigenous Asian, African, or South American commentators. The focus of the volume is in exclusively western commentators. Why the editors chose to include Bishop Colenso over Origen remains a mystery to me. However, in the final analysis the volume successfully lays out how Romans has been read through the centuries and urges contemporary readers of Paul’s letter to consider past attempts of understand Romans instead of simply assuming that recent commentators have a monopoly on exegetical truth.


Michael F. Bird

Highland Theological College, Dingwall