308. Romans Is Not What You Think It Is

About this episode

The episode explores the idea that Paul's letter to the Romans serves as a missionary fundraising document.

Everyone knows Romans for justification by faith, but what if that's only part of the story? In this episode, host Jared Luttjeboer sits down with Dr. Marcus Mininger to explore the provocative thesis that Paul's letter to the Romans is, at its core, a missionary fundraising document aimed at getting the Roman church to bankroll a mission to Spain. Drawing on nearly a decade of renewed scholarly attention to Romans as an actual letter, Dr. Mininger unpacks a stunning structural pattern — nine interlocking parallels bracketing the entire epistle — that Paul himself engineered to guide how the letter should be read. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. This is part one of three.

People in this episode

Host: Jared Luttjeboer

Guest: Dr. Marcus Mininger

Topics covered

• justification by faith
• Paul's letter
• missionary fundraising
• scholarly attention
• structural pattern

Keywords

• Romans
• justification by faith
• mission
• Paul
• scholarship
• letter structure
• fundraising

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Romans

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