The Story of Romans: A Narrative Defense of God's Righteousness

The apparent simplicity of this book is misleading. Professor A. Katherine Grieb takes the stance of an expert teacher explaining a complex text and profound ideas to non-experts, and comes up with an exposition of Paul's Letter to the Romans that is as powerful as it is lucid. She dispels the common idea that Romans is only a summary of Christian doctrine; instead, she writes that the letter "is best read as a continuous story of what God has done in Jesus Christ and what God continues to do in the lives of those who are baptized into Christ Jesus." Her procedure is to retell biblical stories of faith (or faithfulness) and of apostasy, which lie beneath the surface of Paul's letter. Those stories, and the climaxing story of Jesus Christ, make up the one great gospel story of what God has done to save a lost world. The important point is that the gospel story as conveyed by Paul was also Paul's story - for it changed his life radically - and the story of his Roman audience, and is the story of today's readers of the letter if and as they interact with it. Grieb presents Romans as PERTINENT to the lives of contemporary individuals and communities, for it tells the story of God's righteousness (mainly as God's covenant faithfulness) "again and again from different angles until it becomes so clear that we are willing to entrust our lives to it."The brevity of the book (Introduction and main text add up to 157 pages) is both its strength and its weakness: strength, because we are exposed to much of the brilliance of Paul's thinking without having to wade through many pages of technical exegesis; weakness, because at times Grieb has to resort to unsupported interpretive leaps. But where this occurs, we can accept her interpretation on trust - the list of scholars who have shaped her reading of Romans, as acknowledged in the Preface, is a roll call of the famous. Perhaps the first two on the list, Richard Hays and N. T. Wright, have had the most influence, judging from Grieb's exposition and the number of times she references their works. As expected in a brief commentary, she proceeds section by section, rather than verse by verse. She considers Romans 9-11 as central to the letter and her exposition of these chapters is possibly the most demanding part of the book on the reader's attention. Her study of Paul's most important letter is intriguing and deserves wide readership.

I bought this book to help me participate in my church's Bible study group, which is reading Romans. Professor Grieb wrote her doctoral dissertation on Romans and is very knowledgeable regarding the most important scholarship devoted to Romans and to Paul. Indeed the footnotes in of themselves refer the reader to so many useful studies of Romans that the footnotes are worth the price of the book. Professor Grieb's thesis is that Romans is a defense of the righteousness of God. This thesis provides a key to understanding what Paul was trying to do in this difficult book. Professor Grieb's analysis of Paul's understanding of the dialectic between justification by grace and the Law is very lucid. In fact, after 50 years of reading the New Testament I think I finally understand Romans thanks to Professor Grieb. This is a short, concise book but is packed with a wealth of information and analysis. It's clear that Professor Grieb has devoted years and years of study to prepare to write this book, and the work paid off wonderfully. This is a scholarly book, but is intended for laypersons. It's not easy reading (because Romans is hard!), but I can't imagine anyone doing a finer job of analyzing Paul's theology as set forth in Romans. I had a lot of fun reading this book! Highly recommended.

I have read the book twice, about six months apart. I got a lot more out of the book the second time after reading Martyn's commentary on Galatians and Barclay's commentary on Galatians. I like her central premise that Romans in a defense of God's righteousness, and how Paul is in conversation with himself in Romans 9 - 11 and in conversation with a Jewish Christian interpreter in other places in Romans. I also like how she brings out the stories of Old Testament alluded to in Romans. She deals with each chapter in Romans and yet never loses sight of the main view of Paul's defense of God's righteousness. I can see N.T. Wright's influence on her but she does disagree with him at times. I can also see Richard's Hayes influence. She refers to recent biblical scholarship which is good for further research. Her writing is clear and understandable. I gave it four stars because there are no groundbreaking interpretations. There are questions that can be adapted for a small group bible study at the end of each chapter.

Suitable for both scholarly and lay use, while focused on lay concerns, this is a clear exploration of Paul's themes, and addresses concerns raised from the time of Luther to the present quondam Archbishop of York (name momentarily forgotten) and his head-splitting interpretations. It gets a four because it seems fair and because the author clearly has a sense of humor but one that does not get out of hand.

One time I sat in on one of the author's classes & found her to be articulate, clearly imparting useful information in a lively way. I look forward to reading this book. At the conclusion of each chapter there are questions for reflection. I think these will prove useful either for group discussion or personal reflection..

Used it as a supplement to study Romans, and lead a class discussion. The focus on the narrative of Paul's letter and the traditional jewish context as it relates to the tanakh was excellent. Really opened my eyes.

Great insights into the Apostle's defense of God's righteousness.

Great book for bible study