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Understanding Paul: The Early Christian Worldview of the Letter to the Romans is unavailable, but you can change that!

In his study of Paul, Stephen Westerholm suggests that despite the unparalleled influence the apostle has exercised over the last two thousand years, he is little understood by contemporary readers because they often read the Pauline Epistles from the largely unconsidered presuppositions of modern culture. To counter that perspective, Westerholm proposes investigating the mindset of Paul himself....

1 The Commission and Its Context Romans 1:1–15 The opening of Romans offers nothing to cheer those who would fain believe that even Paul must, on occasion, have engaged in small talk. At the outset he presents himself as a man under commission, briefly defines his assigned task, then declares that he has long desired to meet his readers in person—for the rather impersonal reason that they, too, fall within the sphere of his mandate. Toward the end of the letter Paul indicates that he is writing in
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