Paul's purpose in writing Romans : the upbuilding of a Jewish and Gentile Christian community in Rome
The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive study of Paul's purpose in writing Romans, showing the coherence between the 'frame' and the 'body' of the letter and the relationship between the situation of Roman Christians and the main argument of the letter. In order to bring a more objective approach to the study of the letter, we develop a methodology which we call personae analysis. This approach takes Romans seriously as a letter and as Paul's argumentation in the context of the interaction between himself and his addressees. In Chapter 1, we argue for the feasibility of studying Romans as a letter addressed to the situation in Rome. In Chapters 2 to 4 (Part I), we use information mainly from Roman authors, Jewish authors and the inscriptional data from Roman Jewish catacombs to reconstruct a plausible situation of the Roman Jewish community in the first century C.E. with special reference to the social intercourse between Jews and Gentiles. In Chapters 5 to 8 (Part II), we reconstruct a plausible situation of the Roman Christians and develop a hypothesis of Paul's purpose in writing Romans. We suggest that one of Paul's main purposes in writing the letter is to persuade the Jewish and Gentile
Lung, Kwong Lo
Philosophy
Paul's purpose in writing Romans : the upbuilding of a Jewish and Gentile Christian community in Rome. The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive study of Paul's purpose in writing Romans, showing the coherence between the 'frame' and the 'body' of the letter and the relationship between the situation of Roman Christians and the main argument of the letter. In order to bring a more objective approach to the study of the letter, we develop a methodology which we call personae analysis. This approach takes Romans seriously as a letter and as Paul's argumentation in the context of the interaction between himself and his addressees. In Chapter 1, we argue for the feasibility of studying Romans as a letter addressed to the situation in Rome. In Chapters 2 to 4 (Part I), we use information mainly from Roman authors, Jewish authors and the inscriptional data from Roman Jewish catacombs to reconstruct a plausible situation of the Roman Jewish community in the first century C.E. with special reference to the social intercourse between Jews and Gentiles. In Chapters 5 to 8 (Part II), we reconstruct a plausible situation of the Roman Christians and develop a hypothesis of Paul's purpose in writing Romans. We suggest that one of Paul's main purposes in writing the letter is to persuade the Jewish and Gentile
paul purpose write romans jewish gentile christian_community rome aim_provide comprehensive_study paul purpose write romans show coherence frame body letter relationship situation roman christians main_argument letter order_bring objective_study letter develop call persona analysis take romans seriously letter paul argumentation context interaction addressee argue feasibility study romans letter address situation rome part use information mainly roman author jewish author inscriptional data roman jewish reconstruct plausible situation roman jewish community special_reference social jews gentiles part reconstruct plausible situation roman christians develop hypothesis paul purpose write romans suggest paul main_purpose write letter persuade jewish gentile