The New Perspective on Romans

The New Perspective on Romans
Christians have been accused of having the tendency to read their own experiences into their interpretation of the bible. We project our cultural experiences and preconceived notions into the passages we read. This is called introspective conscience. An example of this would be how Martin Luther interpreted Romans from his experience of being under the oppressive legal thumb of fifteen century Roman Catholic Church which eventually sparked the Reformation Movement. Luther read the plain meaning of the text ignoring the contextual and historic context of the book of Romans, equating the legalism of the Church to be the righteousness by works of the Jews that Paul was rebuking. This Reformation Approach to interpreting Romans has been taught in churches uncontested ever since. The reformation approach emphasizes the individuals need to be in right standing with a holy, sovereign God through justification by faith as opposed to the justification by works being taught by the Jews of Paul’s Day.
The new perspective on Romans emerged in the latest century recognizing the historical and contextual context of the book of Romans. First of all, Romans is a letter sent to a real group of people in history who had real issues that were addressed by the apostle. We cannot read this letter apart from the actually intentions and purpose that it was intended for when it was written in AD 57. The new perspective takes this context into account by placing emphasis on people groups and the covenantal nomistic view of Judaism. Unlike the Reformation view, this view recognizes the justification by works that Paul addresses the Jews about, was actually result of a soft legalism that was a result of their belief that their covenant with God would save them. They did not believe that their keeping of the law would save them; however, they believed that their keeping of the law was their badge of salvation. This belief automatically excludes the gentiles from the opportunity of salvation.
However, both interpretations of Paul’s letter to Romans has its weaknesses , so Douglas Moo, the author of Encountering the Book of Romans, offers a modified reformation approach. This interpretation of Romans recognizes the covenantal nominism of new perspective and takes into consideration that Paul was writing about “how an individual human being could get in right standing with God; it is about how Gentiles can be added to God’s people without disenfranchising God’s original people, the Jews” (Moo 2002) . The modified approach reads the Roman letter, with respect to its historical context and recognizes that Romans is about individual salvation and the new people of God.

1 Douglas Moo. Encountering the Book of Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker Acedemic (2002), 24.


 
BIBLIOGRAPY
Moo, Douglas J. Encountering the Book of Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002.
Schreiner, Thomas R. Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.
Wood, Thomas E. How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2005.