The Ethnographic Character of Romans: The Dichotomies of Law-Faith and Jew-Gentile in Light of Greco-Roman and Hellenistic Jewish Ethnography

In this work Susann Liubinskas provides a coherent reading of Pauls letter to the Romans in light of ancient ethnography. Paul like his contemporaries harnesses the apologetic power of this genre in order to fortify the members of the Roman house churches to maintain their distinctiveness by arguing for the historical legitimacy of the Christ movements laws customs and way of life. When the law-faith dichotomy is considered within the larger context of Pauls ethnic discourse its primary function as the means by which Paul draws lines of continuity and discontinuity between the Christ-movement and its venerable Jewish roots comes to light. Rather than viewing Paul as dealing with two different religions we see Paul working to position believing Jews and Gentiles in relationship to Israels history with God particularly as its finds its climax in Jesus Christ. Thus Paul utilizes the law-faith dichotomy not to describe two paths of salvation but to redefine the people of God in the new age as ethnically inclusive.