5 - The situation in Rome

Summary

It has been the argument of the previous chapters that there is the closest possible relationship between Paul's theological reflection and the social reality of Gentile Christian congregations separated from the synagogue. He engages in theology in order to legitimate that reality. It will be the purpose of this and the following chapters to apply this principle to Paul's letter to the Romans, which is still often interpreted without any reference to the underlying social situation.

The question of the purpose of Romans

F.C. Baur was the first scholar to see Romans as a response to problems within the church at Rome. He writes: ‘It is unthinkable that the apostle, without definite circumstances present in the Roman congregation…, should have felt himself obliged to write a letter with such a content to this congregation’ (‘Zweck und Veranlassung’, 156). Baur argues that the church at Rome was composed mainly of Jewish Christians (202ff) who denied the legitimacy of Paul's Gentile mission. There was thus tension between the Jewish majority and the Gentile minority (149), and to resolve this problem Paul wrote a long defence of Christian universalism over against Jewish particularism. In this way, Baur manages to relate the purpose of Romans very closely to his interpretation of its content.

Subsequent scholarship has largely failed to maintain this unity of purpose and content; the content is related to the purpose only in the most general terms.