Ancient Letters and the Purpose of Romans: The Law of the Membrane

(Hardback)

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Aaron Ricker locates the purpose of Romans in its function as a tool of community identity definition. Ricker employs a comparative analysis of the ways in which community identity definition is performed in first-century association culture, including several ancient network letters comparable to Romans. Rickers examination of the community advice found in Rom 12-15 reveals in this new context an ancient example of the ways in which an inscribed addressee community can be invited in a letter to see and comport itself as a proper association network community. The ideal community addressed in the letter to the Romans is defined as properly unified and orderly, as well accommodating to and clearly distinct from cultures outside. Finally, it is defined as linked to a proper network with recognised leadership (i.e., the inscribed Paul of the letter and his network). Pauls letter to the Romans is in many ways a baffling and extraordinary document. In terms of its community-defining functions and strategies, however, Ricker shows its purpose to be perfectly clear and understandable.

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[W]ell-researched and well-argued ... [Ricker] successfully shows how the norms of ancient subcultural association network letters illuminate much of Rom 1215. His thesis goes a long way toward clarifying why Romans appears generic in comparison to Pauls other letters despite being addressed to a specific community ... Rickers study does much to illuminate the paraenetic material of Rom 1215 and to explain a number of the particularities of this letter in comparison to the rest of the undisputed Paulines. Any scholar interested in Romans would do well to spend time with this book. * Society of Biblical Literature *

Author Bio

Aaron Ricker is a lecturer in Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.