Revisiting a Comforting and Infuriating Book of Scripture

FOR MANY OF us, Romans is the most comforting and infuriating book of scripture. We rest easy in God’s grace in chapters three through five and the assurance that all will be well in chapter eight. But we chafe at chapter one’s exclusion of certain people and chapter 13’s apparent baptism of worldly power.

Sylvia C. Keesmaat and Brian J. Walsh are here to help. In their book Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire, Demanding Justice, they read Paul’s letter through the lens of homemaking. All the discipline and love of the letter centers on God’s people making a home in the center of a home-breaking empire, and on God’s invitation to humanity to come home to God. Following the strategy of their book Colossians Remixed, Keesmaat and Walsh paraphrase passages of Romans to clarify its application to readers’ lives, and provide a fictional account of how two members of the ancient Roman congregation received the letter.

Wait a minute. They include fiction in nonfiction?

Yes, and here’s the most noticeable interpretive move they make: inserting questions and comments from an artificial, skeptical dialogue partner.

So they made up old characters to talk about first century Roman culture and a modern voice to bounce their ideas off of? That doesn’t seem very reliable.

Well, they say that all the skeptical questions and comments come from reactions they’ve heard as they’ve taught this material over the years. They’re aiming for “an embodied reading of Romans.” But the body looks a little photoshopped.

You sound skeptical, too.

I am. Colossians Remixed is a more satisfying look into a biblical letter, as it dove into every part of Colossians. Romans is too big a bite to chew. And their focus on home feels like a retread of Steven Bouma-Prediger and Walsh’s book Beyond Homelessness. Still, I recommend Romans Disarmed to those who fear Romans, having heard it taught as an attack on their politics or identity. To them, Keesmaat and Walsh can be guides. Keep to the path, and they will lead you home to God.