The Letter to the Romans: Justice and Race in Antiquity and Today

Some scholars have argued that the letter to the Romans is so unclear that it must be a pastiche of letters or the product of a confused, contradictory writer. We will together make sense of the letter in its historical context as a Jewish Paul articulates (not entirely clearly) how it is that God’s justice and mercy extend to Jews and also to all the nations (ethnē, from which we get our term ethnicity). Special attention will be paid to themes of power and punishment, enslavement, sexuality, ethnicity and race, and justice, both in antiquity and today. Required reading is the Letter to the Romans. Ancillary optional readings will be provided.