New Identity of Obligation: Metaphors and Paul’s Ethical Argument in Romans 6:1–14

Andrés D. Vera (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Associate Professor of New Testament at California Baptist University. His research focuses primarily on Pauline soteriology and cognitive linguistics. He contributed several articles in the Baker Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words.

• PrefaceList of Figures and TablesAbbreviations1 Introduction1 Tensions within the “Indicative-Imperative” Schema2 Approaching the Tension in Romans 6 through Metaphors and Narrative3 Roadmap for the Book2 The “Indicative-Imperative”: Development and Recent Challenges1 The Pioneers: F. C. Baur and H. Fr. Th. L. Ernesti2 Introducing the (Non)problem: Paul Wernle3 Early Solutions to the Problem4 Recent Reformulations and Reevaluations of the Problem5 Summary3 Narrative and Metaphor: a Cognitive Approach to Paul1 Language, Narrative, and Ethics in Paul: Recent Interdisciplinary Approaches2 Toward a Theory of Metaphor3 Cognitive Linguistics and Conceptual Metaphor Theory4 Conclusion4 Sin Is a Container: the Binary Nature of Human Existence (Romans 6:1–2)1 “Indicative-Imperative”: a Narrative-Dependent Schema2 The Metaphorical Narrative of Romans 53 Detecting the “Indicative-Imperative” Tension4 Remaining, Living, and Dying in/to Sin (Rom 6:1–2)5 Conclusion5 Baptism Is Death: Embodying Death and the New Life in and with Christ (Romans 6:3–4)1 Romans 6:3–4 in the Context of Paul’s Argument2 Transportation to the Narrative World3 Perspectives on Paul’s Baptismal Language4 Βαπτίζω’s Metaphoric Extension (Rom 6:3b)5 Baptism for Conversion: Baptism and Conceptual Metonymy (Rom 6:4a)6 Baptism is death by burial: Baptism as a Ritual Embodiment of Death (Rom 6:4a)7 New Life Is a Container (Rom 6:4b)8 Conclusion6 Death, Life, and the Self: Christ’s Resurrection and the Shaping of an Identity (Romans 6:5–10)1 Overview of Paul’s Second and Third Arguments (Rom 6:5–10)2 United to One’s Death and Resurrection: a New Identity Shaped by Death (Rom 6:5)3 The Subject-Self Metaphor: the Death of Self and Christian Identity (Rom 6:6a–6b)4 Death is Release from Sin’s Subjection: Δουλεία and Sin’s Personification (Rom 6:6c–7)5 Dead to Sin and Dead to Death: Christ’s Death and the Assurance of Life (Rom 6:8–10)6 Conclusion7 “Consider Yourselves to Be …”: the Ethics of Self-Perception (Romans 6:11–14)1 “Consider Yourselves” as Imperative of Autobiographical Reconstruction (Rom 6:11)2 Identity and Presentation: Sin, Subject, and the True Self (Rom 6:12–14)3 Conclusion8 Conclusion: a New Identity of Obligation1 Paul’s Ethical Argument in Romans 6:1–142 Romans 6:1–14 and the “Indicative-Imperative”3 Avenues for Further ResearchAppendix—Ὁμοίωμα: What Kind of “Likeness”? (Rom 6:5)BibliographyIndex