In his book, Reading Romans Backwards, Scot McKnight seeks to help us understand the message of Romans as lived theology more than systematic theology unstained from real pastoral concerns.
In this review, I will briefly review key content and insights McKnight gives us, look at the strengths of his insights as well as potential weaknesses, and then explore potential implications for practice from Reading Romans Backwards in a believer’s life.
Key Content and Insights
One of the main insights McKnight brings out about Romans is that the letter is primarily “lived theology.” In other words, the letter to the church at Rome is not merely abstract concepts about salvation and God’s plan to redeem to the world, it is primarily instruction on how to live life. Paul’s lived theology is about Peace in the empire, and it is a radical alternative to Rome’s famous Pax Romana.
The lived theology of Romans comes from Paul’s twenty years of gentile mission, much of it hard-fought and some of it learned in prisons along the way or explained on the run. But the main point here is that Paul is giving instructions about how God’s people live-out a life of peace which he has learned not from isolated study, but from discipling people.
As a part of this, McKnight humanizes not only the letter’s message, but the letter’s courier as well. Phoebe goes unseen if we only see her tacked on to the very end of the book. But a key part of communicating the message of Paul’s letters was that the courier would perform, and even perhaps expound upon, the letter. The letter courier would need to be someone of credibility and authority, and for Paul’s letter to Rome, that person was Phoebe. Phoebe was a gentile believer, whom Paul refers to as a “sister.” She was also a “deacon” and a woman of wealth whom Paul commended as worthy of hospitality and friendship.
By reading Romans backwards, McKnight brings to the front of the stage the Roman Christian’s struggle between the Strong and the Weak. He points to several considerations that lead him to conclude the Weak are predominantly Jewish believers and the Strong are predominately gentile believers. A key differentiating factor seems to be that the Weak believe continuing to follow the Torah is essential for true Christian practice and they sit in judgement of the Strong even though they have no status or power. The Strong, then, believe Jesus is king and do not observe the Torah as God’s will for them and have looked condescendingly upon the Weak, sometimes even despising them.
McKnight emphasizes that the whole goal of Paul’s message is Christoformity: being conformed to Christ (Ro. 8:29). Lived theology is Christoformity. McKnight brings out how from Romans, we see that Christoformity is (1) a lived theology of peace (14:7-9; 15:3, 5, 7), (2) embodied God orientation (12:1-2), (3) embodied body-of-Christ orientation (12:3-8; 14-15; 16:17-20), and (4) embodied public orientation (12:14-13:10). Again, notice that these are not merely abstract concept of what the Christian life means, but specific instructions for how to live-out being conformed to Christ in the church and in the midst of empire.
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