Reading Romans with Roman Eyes

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

• 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

Harrison’s breakout book Paul’s Language of Grace in Its Graeco-Roman Context and his follow-up on the imperial cult in Thessalonica provided a well-powered two stage launch for New Testament students on their voyage back to the world of Paul and the first hearers of his letters. Now Harrison’s Reading Romans with Roman Eyes offers a slingshot boost and focus in trajectory to first century Rome and the letter Paul sent there. Reading Romans with Roman Eyes is without peer in the way it offers a stereoscopic consideration of both Jewish and Roman cultural perspectives by means of literary, archaeological, epigraphic, iconographic, and numismatic evidence. This balance of perspectives and accompanying range of evidence is unmatched by anyone else studying Romans today. With the release of Reading Romans with Roman Eyes, Harrison has become a patron of many, especially those seeking to understand Romans in its first century contexts.