New book Suffering in Romans (Foreword by Todd Still and written by Siu Fung Wu) is now available

The new book, Suffering in Romans, is now available for order. (Click here to go to the publisher’s website.)

Book description.

Most of the Jesus-followers in Rome would have been familiar with socioeconomic hardship. Suffering was a daily reality either for themselves or for someone they knew. Many lived below or just above subsistence level. Some were slaves, homeless, or chronically sick. Followers of Christ might have experienced persecution because of their refusal to take part in the local religious festivals. Suffering is, of course, a significant theme in Rom 5:1–11 and 8:17, 18–39. Paul mentions various types of afflictions many times in these texts. How might Paul’s audience have understood them? In Suffering in Romans Siu Fung Wu argues that Paul speaks of the vocation of the Jesus-fllowers to participate in Christ’s suffering, with the purpose that they may be glorified with him. Indeed, their identification with Christ’s suffering is an integral part of God’s project of transforming humanity and renewing creation. It is in their faithful suffering that Christ-followers participate in God’s triumph over evil. This is counter-intuitive, because most people think that victory is won by power and strength. Yet the children of God partake in his cosmic victory by their suffering, aided by the Spirit and the hope of glory.

An excerpt from Professor Todd Still can be found here.

Endorsement by Tim Gombis can be found by clicking here. Endorsements by Keith Dyer, George M. Wieland, and Sean Winter can be found here.

Tim Gombis’ endorsement for the new book Suffering in Romans

In a previous post I mentioned the new book Suffering in Romans, which will be released soon. Here is Tim Gombis’ endorsement for it. (For more information about the book, click here.)

Wu’s analysis of Romans 5–8 represents an original contribution to the study of Paul’s great letter . . . Against the backdrop of his social reconstruction, Wu elucidates Paul’s argument regarding the creation of a new humanity in Christ and its vocation to suffer in anticipation of sharing in Christ’s glory. Deftly drawing together several lines of inquiry —Scriptural echoes, the Greco-Roman religio-political matrix—Wu engages a wide rang of scholarship to provide a sound exegetical study.

—Timothy G. Gombis, Associate Professor of New Testament, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

The church’s ongoing task to probe the Scriptures

Recently I have reblogged some of Tim Gombis’ posts on The Gospel of the Kingdom. But I think it’s worth citing a few things that he said. Here is the first installment.

But the first notion that comes to mind is that if the gospel as it is encountered in the Gospels sounds foreign, this should provoke Christians to embark on a long-term pursuit of getting to know the Scriptures better.  We ought to seek to understand the biblical narrative as it unfolds and sets the context within which Jesus’ proclamation makes good sense.

Gaining increasing familiarity with the narrative over time helps us understand God and his intentions for creation; the relation of humanity to God, to each other, and to God’s world; the fall and how that corrupted humanity and God’s good creation; and the aims of God to reclaim his world and restore humanity to himself, to one another, and to creation.

Here is one that I really like.

The church’s ongoing task is to probe the Scriptures over time and to enter the Scripturally-rendered world so that the biblical narrative shapes our imaginations.  As this takes place over the long haul, Christians gain wisdom and discernment as how the gospel might encounter and transform various aspects of life.

To faithfully communicate the gospel of the kingdom, Christians need to be patient and diligent students of Scripture, becoming conversant over time with the Christian story so that we have the discernment to speak a life-giving word that meets the moment.

Tim Gombis’ post can be found here.