Final Account: Paul's Letter to the Romans

Rating:
Summary: A delightful account that sees the wood for the trees
Review: Stendhal is well-known to New Testament students for his provocative article on 'The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West' (1963) and here at last is his book-length reflection on Paul's letter to the Romans, where he works out that article at greater length and tied to the text.

It is succinct (around 80 pages of text) and written with a superb lightness of touch. This is 'the big picture' of Paul at his most excited, guiding the perplexed reader through the tangled maze of the argument with humour and yet a serious concern to grasp the same vision of God which motivated Paul.

If there is a complaint, it is perhaps that Stendahl makes such short work of the intricacies of Romans that one wonders if he is perhaps a little more straightforward than Paul himself. Never the less, he nuances well known positions with clarity (notably rejecting simplistic ideas of '2 covenants' sometimes attributed to him) and he reminds us of just why we ever bothered with the New Testament in the first place.

Highly recommended.