2020 Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies

When reading the book of Romans, we often focus on the quotable passages, making brief stopovers and not staying long enough to grasp some of the big ideas it contains. Instead of raiding Paul's most famous letter for a passage here or a theme there, leading New Testament scholar Beverly Roberts Gaventa invites us to linger in Romans. She asks that we stay with the letter long enough to see how Romans reframes our tidy categories and dramatically enlarges our sense of the gospel.

Containing profound insights written in accessible prose and illuminating references to contemporary culture, this engaging book explores the cosmic dimensions of the gospel that we read about in Paul's letter. Gaventa focuses on four key issues in Romans--salvation, identity, ethics, and community--that are crucial both for the first century and for our own. As she helps us navigate the book of Romans, she shows that the gospel is far larger, wilder, and more unsettling than we generally imagine it to be. "Using contemporary cultural illustrations from sources as varied as Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life and Bruce Springsteen's 'Land of Hope and Dreams, ' Beverly Roberts Gaventa delightfully clarifies Paul's complex message in Romans. In beautifully written prose that is as compellingly clear for the novice as it is exegetically convincing for the scholar, Gaventa reminds us of the cosmic, liberative power of Paul's message. Here is that book of uncommon quality: easily accessible and utterly indispensable. Reading Romans today? Start here."
--Brian Blount, Union Presbyterian Seminary

"This is a book the church has long needed. Professor Gaventa pulls back the thin veneer of familiarity to introduce us to the high drama in Paul's Letter to the Romans. Her writing is both scholarly and accessible, ancient and contemporary, theological and pastoral."
--M. Craig Barnes, Princeton Theological Seminary

"From the beginning of the Christian era until the present day, Paul's Letter to the Romans has been the source of revolutionary rethinking. Nowhere do we come closer to the radical heart of the gospel. The universal and cosmic notes of the Pauline symphony are sounded in this book by one of our most esteemed interpreters of the apostle's letters. Beverly Gaventa has written a book for ordinary parish clergy and laypeople that is fun to read and full of spicy references to popular culture, and that will jolt readers into a new appreciation for the great apostle and his unique place in the history of Christian theology."
--Fleming Rutledge, author of Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Sermons on Romans and The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ

"No one makes Romans come alive quite like Beverly Gaventa. In this highly accessible but provocative book--aimed at a wide Christian audience--she challenges our domesticated construals of Paul's gospel with a vision of God's comprehensive saving agency. If the starting point and the primary subject matter of the letter is not us but God, we are suddenly liberated from our excessive anxieties about ourselves, the church, and 'ethics.' Here are 3-D lenses to see Romans, the gospel, and the reality of God's grace, power, and mystery in a new and exciting way."
--John M. G. Barclay, Durham University

"When in Romans is deceptively accessible and lighthearted, so that readers are not immediately aware of being drawn into deep and rewarding engagement with Paul's complex text. But once inside and grappling with its intricacies, they are led securely through by Beverly Gaventa's experienced and unfailing judgment."
--Carolyn Osiek, RSCJ, Brite Divinity School

Formato	Tapa suave
Número de Páginas	160
Lenguaje	Inglés
Editorial	Baker Academic
Fecha de Publicación	2018-07-03
Dimensiones	8.4" x 5.4" x 0.5" pulgadas
Serie	Theological Explorations for the Church Catholic
Letra Grande	No
Con Ilustraciones	No

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts

Beverly Roberts Gaventa (PhD, Duke University) is Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She is also Emerita Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Gaventa is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Our Mother Saint Paul, Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus, and commentaries on 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Acts. She received the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies in 2020 for her long and distinguished contribution to New Testament scholarship, to the discipline and academy through a range of positions of responsibility, and for her mentoring of younger scholars.