How do you think Romans 9-11 fits with the material we have read in Romans 1-8? Is this an aside or a fundamental conclusion to what has gone before?
Understanding that the recipients of this letter were presumably gentile, how is Paul framing this group of people in the body of Christ? Are they members of a new, distinct religion, or invited into the covenant with Israel? How does this distinction affect how we read this letter?
Applying the Text:
Professors Attridge and Bartlett remark that what may have been a pastoral approach to inviting others to follow Jesus in his time is no longer pastoral in a post-Holocaust world. How do we think about the relationship between Christians and Jews in 21st century North America? Is Paul helpful to us here, or is his framework so different from our own that we need to start somewhere else entirely?
Given the way he closes this section with praise, Paul doesn’t seem to think that God owes humanity answers to every mystery of life. Do you agree? Disagree? Why?