Reading Romans with Roman Eyes

James R. Harrison is professor and research director at the Sydney College of Divinity, Australia.

James Harrison’s Reading Romans with Roman Eyes is a fine addition to the Paul in Critical Contexts series. Harrison’s work provides a useful addition to socio-cultural analyses of Romans, by setting the letter in the context in which it was read and inviting consideration of how Rome itself shaped the perspective of its readers. The attention to detail and the archaeological data, both small and large-scale, takes recognised honour/shame categories, which sometimes appear nebulous, and gives them a concrete (at times, literally) form.

• 1.Introduction2. Viewing Paul’s Epistle to the Romans with Roman Eyes: A Visual Exegesis of the Artifacts of Rome3. Paul and Status Signifiers from Late Republican to Neronian Rome: An Epigraphic Reconsideration of the Social Constituency of the Roman Churches4. Paul’s “Indebtedness” to the Barbarian in Latin West Perspective5. Paul and the “Social Relations” of Death at Rome (Rom 5:14, 17, 21) 6. Paul’s “Groaning” Creation and the Roman Understanding of Nature: A Contemporary Conversation in the Grounds of Livia’s Villa and Nero’s Garden7. Augustan Rome and the Body of Christ: A Comparison of the Social Vision of the Res Gestae and Paul’s Letter to the Romans8. Paul the “Zionist”: Romans 9:33 and 11:26 in their Jewish and Roman Context9. Paul and the Roman Ideal of Glory in the Epistle to the Romans10. Conclusion