Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes | Notes
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When we view scripture only through our one cultural lens, it can lead to errors of interpretation, or at the very least, hinder our understanding of the scriptures. Encouragement to read with an Eastern lens does not mean that the Eastern way of reading is inherently better than the Western. Any monocultural lens of reading scripture is “myopic”. However, since the Enlightenment period, most Christians read scripture through a very Western, modern lens. Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes provides a new way of viewing various topics covered in Paul’s letter to the Romans. It helps us understand words such as justification, honor, glory, shame, and grace. Additionally, it helps us rethink the purpose of Paul’s letter and in doing so may help us more accurately interpret it.
Honor-shame cultures are built on 3 emphases: tradition, relationship, and hierarchy, all of which make up one’s “face” or social status which determines one’s worth.
Honor and shame can be either achieved or ascribed. Eastern cultures most often value ascribed honor more than achieved honor, but the two are complementary. This is in contrast to the West where achieved honor is supreme and ascribed honor can ironically be antagonistic to achieved honor.*
Eastern cultures insist on group loyalty, as well as constancy, uniformity, order, and balance in their world. Additionally, harmony is a high value in Eastern culture, even to the point that bringing up conflict or tension is seen as shameful because you are in effect not able to “keep the peace”. This is the main issue in Romans 14 where Paul urges for unity and peace in the church which can only be found in a shared collective identity under Christ.
While Western and Eastern cultures share significant overlap in how honor and shame influence our moral behaviors, perhaps the biggest difference between the two cultures is how one views himself or herself in relation to others. Easterners have a strong sense of collective identity (ie. We are God’s children), whereas Westerners are much more individualistic (ie. I am God’s child).
Paul does not write to individuals but to groups. His readers see themselves not as individuals but as people in a community. The entire letter is highly contextualized for people sensitive to collective identity. ****— Jackson (p. 64)
Paul’s emphasis on collective identity is addressing the question of, Who is justified rather than How is an individual justified. Collective identity is a beautiful construct that places the individual in a community of belonging. However, when collective identity is tainted by sin it can lead to social divisions which Paul views as antithetical inhibitions to the gospel. These social divisions begin to influence how we answer the question, Who’s in and who’s out?
Romans 2-3 focus on this question at length: Does God grant salvation based on “face” or one’s ascribed or achieved honor? God is clear that one’s ascribed honor does not earn one’s ticket into the kingdom of God, nor can one achieve His honor by moral perfection. It is through faith that God ascribes honor with a new identity and a new “face”.
Culture should not define who is in or out of the kingdom of God. Paul rightly condemns the Jews and the Roman Gentile Christians for building their collective identity around their ethnicity and culture. He urges them to find a united collective identity in being “in Christ” (slaves of righteousness), as opposed to being “in Sin” (slaves of sin). Paul’s Letter to the Romans is not simply correcting doctrine, but seeking to shift their entire worldview of salvation.
One’s identity is determined by whose “face” one seeks. God does not disregard collective identity; he reorients it… Gospel ministry is nothing less than overturning worldviews that effectively divide the world into culture-centric colonies. — Jackson (p. 102, 109)
Romans is not written to teach doctrine regarding how individuals can be justified, Paul’s reminding the Roman church, who is eligible for justification because of the work of Christ. He is resetting their worldview for the sake of unity in their church and so they will support the gospel spreading to the “barbarians” outside of Rome (ie. Spain).
When approaching Paul’s Letters to the Romans, it is wise to answer this question: Why would Paul’s longest exposition of the gospel be written to a church in whom Paul is satisfied in their level of goodness and knowledge, seeing them as a church who is fully capable of instructing one another?
I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. — Romans 15:14
Perhaps there is another intent Paul had in mind when he wrote the letter that can inform the way we read it.
What was Paul’s purpose in writing his letter to the Greco-Roman church? To teach doctrine and respond to issues in the church? Or something more? Most authors especially in the first century would begin and end their letters with a mention of their purpose of writing. Paul writes his thematic verses in Romans 1:16-17 and Romans 15:8-9, highlighting God’s power and His promises regarding both the Jews (the circumcised) and the Gentiles and Greeks.