Wrestling with Romans

`I have vowed,’ Dr Robinson says, ‘never to write a biblical commentary. For in a commentary you have to say something on everything, whether you have anything to say or not. This is why most commentaries, in my experience, are duller than other books written by the same persons, even on the same subject. But they are indispensable quarries.’ Sensing the lack of something between them and books designed for daily or group Bible study, he has provided a guide to the Epistle to the Romans which will set the historical context, draw attention to the points of interest and importance, and help the would-be reader to wrestle with its often difficult message. `I do not promise only blood, sweat and tears. On the contrary, the Epistle to the Romans offers what Winston Churchill also called the sunlit uplands, indeed the very heights of Christian experience and theology. But to appreciate them one must be prepared to work at it. A church where this wrestling is not being seriously attempted, especially in the most educated generation of its history to date, will be impoverished in its capacity to transform the world rather than be conformed to it.