One of the biggest trends in scholarship surrounding Paul’s work, and especially Romans, since the last decades of the twentieth century has been the question of the extent to which Paul is writing with an anti-imperial agenda. Certainly this represents a huge shift from the customary readings of the Reformation that see Romans as a … Continue reading Paul vs. The Empire?: Romans 1.1-7, Part 2
Today is the first ‘real’ post of my new series, Our Common Cause: An Integral study of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Romans is a letter that is important not only for what it says, but also for how much weight Christians have placed on it over the centuries. Since there’s no better place to … Continue reading Awkward Introductions: Romans 1.1-7, Part 1
I was away for about ten days (more on that in the focus on section), meaning I skipped last week's culture roundup. So I have three weeks of books and music to talk about today. Roundup Music As is probably apparent by now, I've been struggling to figure out the rhythms of 2026's music release … Continue reading Culture Roundup (May 30, 2026): Revisiting Very Old Stories
Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the churches in Rome. This letter turned out to be one of the most widely studied, debated, and influential books of the Christian Scriptures. It is equal parts insightful and confounding; it opens up the heart and yet remains resistant to being opened up … Continue reading Our Common Cause – An Integral Study of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: Introduction
Our lives are full: full of responsibilities, to-do lists, distractions, and the anxieties of a news cycle that has morphed from a twenty-four hour news cycle (which was bad enough) into an 86,400 second news cycle. To quote the great 1980s philosopher Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around … Continue reading Soul Speech: Conclusion
Matthew Root 