Every Christian thinker must come to grips with this powerful expression of Paul's conception of the meaning of Jesus' life and the conception of the Christian life. I present here a group of essays on this letter which reprsent the development of my own understanding of Pau's thinking and conception.

Summary of Romans (6/4/99 1/14/02 1/14/02) This is excerpted from an e-mail to a fellow Christian, Sam Russ, and represents my best yet (as of 5/99) grasp of the thinking of Paul the Marvelous, Apostle to the Gentiles.

Romans Briefly Considered from a Wesleyan Perspective. (5/17/99 5/17/99 5/17/99) This represents a brief summary of Romans in a way that would be compatible with traditional Wesleyan thinking, i.e., where the primary work of the Holy Spirit is the progressive perfection of the Christian even while on earth (given that life is long enough).

Romans Five. (8/11/97 5/7/98 5/7/98) This commentary represents an effort to give a thoroughly Wesleyan cast to Pauls letter to the Romans, perhaps the most important of all books in the bible (with the possible exception of the gospel accounts) and focuses presently on the5th chapter of that book, but with sufficient consideration of the rest of the book to put 5 into perspective. A recent (as of 8/11/97) insight into what Paul may have had in mind in comparing Adam and Jesus is included. The commentary, given its Wesleyan bent, siezes upon the language of Chapter 5 and the sentiment of Chapter 11 to assert a universal encompassment of love, although the term "salvation" is reserved to signal a conscious cooperation with the work of God.*

[* A more thorough and systematic gloss on Romans in the making is given below.

Romans 14. (5/7/98 5/9/98 5/9/98) A rather short probe into the meaning of the term "weak in faith" and a search for the principles of Christian living which underlie the cases and the admonitions of this 14th chapter of Romans. I have included an appendix entitled: "Why Paul's opinions are included in the Christian scriptures."

Concepts in Romans (6/1/98 6/1/98 6/1/98) Here I am seeking further to ennumerate and consoidate the concepts Paul appeals to in Romans.

Musings of 6/5/98 on Romans. (6/5/98 6/5/98 6/5/98) My best yet (6-5-98) grasp and expression of Paul's thinking as depicted in Romans.

Romans. (8/18/97 3/12/98 3/12/98) Here I am seeking to develop a comprehensive (Wesleyan) gloss on St. Paul's letter to the Romans (but in the same spirit as the commentary on Romans 5 above.) I think I have the gist of this fairly well in hand, but will require still some time to finish it and polish it. I intend to add a couple of appendices to incorporate some of Kant's thinking, and that may take even longer. I am playing around with a more rigorous (and Wesleyan) differentiation of justification, salvation and sanctification. [10/29/97 I have put off completing this for the time being in order to try to develop a clearer statement of the function of Jesus with regard to God's intention in the creation. A more recent and very brief outline of my thinking here is given in Romans Sketch.] At a different site I have included some draft appendixes to this work. These can be accessed directly via:

I. A Comparison of Paul's Proof of the Existence of God and that of Kant.

II. A Theory of Atonement Which is Based on Moral Concepts.

III. Paul's Conception of Justification, Salvation and Sanctification.

IV. Romans 1 and Homosexuality.

V. An Exchange Between Two Christians Concerning Homosexuality.

To contact the author, please e-mail: pmr**kantwesley.com (note: the ** must be replaced by @)

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