The Epistle to the Romans is the longest of the epistles as composed by Paul, which cover – depending on how you count it, between seven and nine general topics. The first being introduction, which one could consider a sort of back story about Paul himself, in addition to Paul going on about the current state of Christianity in the western world, and his involvement in it. One must also keep in mind that the “book” itself was written to a specific audience during a specific era, and thus must be kept in that context – unfortunately that’s lost on many people today.
After the pleasantries, Paul goes on to talk about the relationship between Jesus Christ and God, as well as our transcendent relationship with God. He also goes on about the complex issue of Judaism and Christianity, whether or not one must be Jewish first before being a Christian, this is an issue still debated by scholars as to Paul’s expect position. It seems as though to me he was willing to suspend any sort of Judaic-prerequisites in order to gain converts in Rome.
The concept of Original Sin, which is unique to Christianity in the Abrahamic tradition, is also partly discussed by Paul. He asserts, wrongly I believe, that humans in general have become ungodly, primarily by wicked and depraved “thoughts.” In addition to this he also warns against women having sex with anyone other than their husbands, and men having sex with anyone other their wives, primarily other men. He also discusses idol worship at great length, and this is almost certainly because it was common practice in Rome at the time.
Paul really gets on to people who he believes are hypocrites (2:1 – 10) and due to translation issues, this section has been used for justification for anti-Semitism, particularly in the Middle Ages when the French and Germans were still footing the blame for the Black Plague. This is highly ironic, considering in chapter five, Paul goes on to praise the relationship between God and “Israel,” and hopes that eventually all chosen people will eventually accept Jesus as the Messiah.
Surely if Paul were pointing out that Jews were some how dangerous, anti-Christian, or against God, he would’ve stated it clearly instead of simply hoping they would come around. However he does make the bold assertion – under what authority I do not know – that Israel can only become God’s “chosen nation” again after the Jews accept Jesus as the Messiah.
I think between the 12th and 15th chapters we have a highly influential series of verses which have created a sort of modern irony -- which I will discuss at length later in this paper – that if one is obedient to God, proselytizes, and loves others they not only will not sin, they won’t have a desire to. To further spread the irony like butter on burnt toast, Paul speaks at great length about how the “gospels” can bring about a transformation in people and keep them in God’s good graces – he was of course at this time talking about the Old Testament, the Torah, because the New Testament did not yet exist, yet this has taken on a sort of meta view, where he was discussing a book yet to be written.
The final part is as interesting as the introduction, because both we see a sort of intimate portrait of Paul. Interestingly he speaks about an apparent large amount of women involved in the early church, something that was ignored for the better part of 1,500 years by said church. He goes on to discuss his future plans to travel, other individuals in the Church, and other mundane things.
Epistle to the Romans no doubt has had a large impact, not only on the church, but on western society in general. Beyond that though, Christianity itself has had some clear cultural impacts, well beyond views of marriage, homosexuality, and the age of reason.
One interesting example, and fairly contradictory, is how punishment is carried out in our society. We have on the one hand the Quaker-based notion of silence and solitude will create reflection and repentance, and thus help reform criminals – this is the origin of the modern prison system used over most of the world. The contradiction comes in with the traditional puritanical view of physical punishment, primarily directed at children. So to me it almost creates the modern view that we ground adults, but we physically punish children.
A second is out sex is viewed in our society. We have a society that often tries to promote the idealism of abstinence, while ironically at the same time pretending masturbation doesn’t exist and is not a suitable alternative. Further contradictions exist when those who oppose abortion also oppose birth control. It’s a shame to also point out that much of the hypocrisy and contradictions are actually aimed at women.
Perhaps a widely held view today is that the modern western ideals of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, ownership of self, etc originate from Christianity. Of course we all have heard many times that these are Judeo-Christian concepts, but if that is true why did they not immerge in the west until after the Enlightenment? The fact of the matter is the two primary influences of the Age of Region and these concepts are Black Plague and Islam, whether or not nature or the Arabs had that intention.