Teaching Romans Backwards
A Study Guide to Reading Romans Backwards by Scot McKnight
- 148 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Teaching Romans Backwards
A Study Guide to Reading Romans Backwards by Scot McKnight
About This Book
Teaching Romans Backwards is astudy guide to Scot McKnight's Reading Romans Backwards thathelps teachers and students work through theMcKnight'stext in an engaging and interactive way. Becky Castle Miller has carefully created and designed a range of learning activities, from simple to complex, for all levels of students and all learning styles. Originally designed for a fifteen-weekcourse, the guide can beeasilycondensed or expanded. Each lesson includes tasks and readings for the students to complete before class, in class instructions and lesson plans, and a peek into the lesson for the following week. The appendices contain additional materials, including quiz and essay questions, that help instructors turn their exploration of Reading Romans Backwards from a discussion to a more standard course. Available for orderin paperbackand free download on the Baylor University Press website, this guide allows readers to experienceRomans in a whole new light. Teaching Romans Backwards seeks to bring Romans to life in all contexts and for all people.
Frequently asked questions
Information
LESSON ONE
PREFACE, INTRODUCTION, CHAPTER 1
BEFORE CLASS
- ā Read the Table of Contents
- ā Read the Preface (3 pages)
- ā Read the Introduction (3 pages)
- ā Read Romans 16:1-16
- ā Read Chapter 1 (3 pages)
- ā Answer the Personal Study Questions
MAIN TAKEAWAY
TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Introduction
Chapter 1
CHAPTER SUMMARIES
Preface
- ā¢ We can understand chapters 1 through 11 of Romans better by looking first at chapters 12 through 16. This is what McKnight calls āreading Romans backwards: first, Romans 12ā16, then 9ā11, then 1ā8ā (ix).
- ā¢ Many approaches to interpreting Romans see it as a theological treatise rather than a contextualized letter to house churches in Rome. The context is first-century Rome under Emperor Nero, and the timing is when Paul was planning to carry the good news of Jesus on a further missionary journey to Spain.
- ā¢ Two main ways of reading Romans emerge in the scholarship. One sees Romans as talking about individual salvation. The other sees Romans as talking about the church and how those in the church can be reconciled into a fellowship of different siblings. McKnightās approach is the second, focusing on intra-church relationships.
- ā¢ In looking at the themes of Privilege, Power, and Peace, this approach focuses on hearing Romans through āthe (imagined) ears of the Weak and Strongā (x).
Introduction
- ā¢ Church people today still grapple with the same issues Paul tackles in Romans: āthe inability of the Privileged and the Powerful to embody the gospelās inclusive demand and include the Disprivileged and the Disempowered. The mirror of this issue is the Disempowered claiming their own kind of Privilege and Powerā (xiii).
- ā¢ Power and Privilege lead to injustice, while the gospel of Peace deconstructs and denies both to bring Godās justice.
- ā¢ The practical advice for living out theology in the day-to-day life of the house churches that we find in Romans 12ā16 is not an inconsequential add-on to the letter. Rather, it is the point of the letter. Romans 1ā11 is the theological explanation that undergirds the pastoral advice of Romans 12ā16.
Chapter 1: PhoebeāThe Face of Romans (16:1-2)
- ā¢ āLetters in Paulās world were the embodied, inscripted presence of the letter writer, in this case Paul. He chooses a woman to embody his letter, which means the face of Paul is experienced as the face of Phoebeā (3).
- ā¢ Paul calls Phoebe āsister.ā This is an example of the way Paulās frequent sibling language creates a new social order. The Roman world assigned people status based on their biological family, their wealth, or their success. By calling other Christians in the church āsiblings,ā Paul makes them family and reorients peopleās basis for status on their being āin Christāāand in Christ, they all have equal status. This disrupts the Roman ideas about Privilege and Power.
- ā¢ Phoebe is a deacon, which can mean āservant,ā yet in the churches, it could mean an officially recognized ministry or office. Because Paul connects Phoebe with the church in Cenchreae, it seems she held a ministry leadership position there. Itās possible she is the host, the patron (the one who funds), and the leader of that church.
- ā¢ Phoebe is a benefactorāa wealthy person who financially provides for peopleāfor Paul and many others.
- ā¢ Paul commends Phoebe to the Romans in a way that indicates she both carried and performed the letter.
- ā¢ ā. . . reading as performance included gestures at the right time and to the right segment of the audience (when Phoebe read āStrongā or āWeak,ā she looked them in the eye, or, if she thought they needed it, the opposing group in the eye!); inflection of the voice (here pastoral, there admonishing, here softening, and there exhorting) . . . We start here, then, with our reading of Romans: with the face of Phoebe, in our presence, performing the letter in such a way that each person in the churches senses Paulās presenceā (5).
GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- How to Use This Study Guide
- Pre-Reading Questions
- Lesson Zero: Welcome to Romans
- Lesson One: Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1
- Lesson Two: Chapter 2
- Lesson Three: Chapter 3, Chapter 4
- Lesson Four: Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7A
- Lesson Five: Chapter 7B, Chapter 8
- Lesson Six: Chapter 9, Chapter 10
- Lesson Seven: Chapter 11
- Lesson Eight: Chapter 12
- Lesson Nine: Chapter 13, Chapter 14
- Lesson Ten: Chapter 15, Chapter 16
- Lesson Eleven: Chapter 17, Chapter 18
- Lesson Twelve: Chapter 19
- Lesson Thirteen: Chapter 20
- Lesson Fourteen: Chapter 21 and Conclusion
- Lesson Fifteen: Exam and Romans Performance
- Acknowledgments
- Appendix A: Content Plan for 8 Weeks of Classes
- Appendix B: Quiz Answers
- Appendix C: Essay Topics
- Appendix D: Further Reading
- Appendix E: āOur Sister Phoebeā