330 Reviews

After his death Chinese Catholicism grew so that by 1644 there were
70,000 Christians in China. By 1701 there were around ‘200,000 converts
and 153 clerics in China’ (p. 296). However, in 1710 Christianity ‘was
forbidden to the Chinese people’ (p. 297) due to internal squabbles
over Ricci’s methods, Chinese church rites, religious terminology, and
Ricci’s accommodation to Confucianism and Chinese culture.
Though some believe that Ricci permitted far too much accommoda-
tion of the Christian faith to a Chinese/Confucian context, many of his
missionary methods are whole-heartedly embraced today – learn the
local language, show respect for the local culture and religions, make
friendships with the common people and the rulers, translate religious
texts into the local language, train indigenous people to be church
leaders and clergy, help those who sent you to understand the country
and people you are serving, translate their literary works into your
language, and share them with those who sent you. This methodology
was also used by Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, the pioneer missionary to
India (1706–1719).
This is a book for scholars of Jesuit missions, the history of Christian-
ity in China, and should be used in university courses in mission work.

Armand J. Boehme
Trinity Lutheran Church, Faribault, MN

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Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary, Arland J. Hultgren,

Eerdmans, 2011 (ISB 978-0-8028-2609-1), pp. xxxviii + 804, hb $60/
£40.99 rirt_1064 330..460

As one of the more inspirational, challenging and, not least, puzzling of

the Epistles, Paul’s letter to the Romans is a very important document.
Not only does its content offer an overview of some of the major themes
of Paul’s theological premise, as well as introduce its recipients to some
of his main teaching, this letter also deals with live and sometimes
sensitive issues which define Paul’s strong expectations for Christian
living. It is partly for this reason that the letter to the Romans has
sometimes been cited as a final theological treatise which acts as a
retrospective summary of all Paul had taught so far. However, in this
Commentary, Arland Hultgren considers the idea that this is also a
forward looking Epistle which, [as well as act as a guide for all followers
of Christ,] will also encourage the members of the Roman House
Churches to support Paul in further missions elsewhere, in particular
his planned missionary journeys to Spain.
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Reviews 331

Written towards the end of his career, it being more seasoned in

terms of tone and content, various models of interpretation have been
applied to Paul’s letter to the Romans, with studies taking place about
its ambassadorial, expositional, and epideictic genres that each demon-
strate a set of religious values and praxis thought necessary for Christian
living. Paul certainly uses a number of literary conventions within the
context of this letter, which is both fully didactic and persuasive in its
content. However, whichever genre applies best is open to interpreta-
tion and can only be located once the basic data has been attended to
and the social circumstances of, both, Paul and his reader, have been
considered.
The introduction to the letter, which is to a community that Paul had
not founded or indeed visited, suggests that Paul is writing to inform of
his arrival, as well as obtain both an allegiance and support for any
necessary resources that might enable him to prepare a planned journey
to Spain [should his apostolic authority not be accepted in Jerusalem].
The letter is also a means for apostolic intervention in which Paul
examines/addresses a number of specific issues that need to be theo-
logically addressed, specifically: the wrath and righteousness of God
and expectations for Christian living; the civil disturbances caused by
the expulsion of much of the Jewish population from Rome; the future
and place of Israel and consequently their how their unbelief might
affect their relationship with YHWH; and the matter of the Weak and the
Strong including the indifference Paul had towards attitudes of Food
Law which, he said, should not put a stumbling block in the way of
welcoming one another for the glory of God. In this way, much of
Romans could be said to be about man’s relationship with God, and
how individuals might become/assume a part of the people of God.
However, whist this interpretation has its place, Hultgren makes the
point that this letter is better interpreted as being about God’s relation-
ship with man and, in this case, the contentious issue of salvation being
made available to Gentiles through the justification by faith in Christ, a
message that appears to contradict the original Covenantal promises
made to Israel, God’s chosen. Much of Romans is about Paul’s response
to the conflicts and disagreements between the Jews, the Jewish Chris-
tians and the Gentiles over what it means to be a true follower of God.
Paul reminds them all that it is both God’s wrath, through Adam’s Fall
in the garden of Eden, and God’s righteousness through the blessing of
Christ, that is made available to all. Paul also offers the reminder that
God’s promises to Israel still remain.
In this extensive Commentary, Hultgren makes use of exegesis
and textual analysis, as well as literary, philological and theological
methods of interpretation in order to locate a more comprehensive
method of reading and understanding of the letter to the Romans. As
well as offering a general comment on each section of the epistolic
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
332 Reviews

material, which gives an overview of its meaning and context, Hultgren

also provides a more in depth analysis, which places its content within
a theological and social context and analyzes Paul’s use of language in
light of both biblical material and extra-biblical material. Containing a
wealth of bibliographic references to act as a basis for further study, this
is a worthy read.

Benjamin Bury
University of Birmingham

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Rethinking the Trinity and Religious Pluralism: An Augustinian

Assessment, Keith E. Johnson, InterVarsity Press, 2011 (ISBN 978-0-
8308-3902-5), 286 pp., pb $30 rirt_1065 332..462

Johnson is a master of Augustine’s Trinitarian theology and he has learnt

greatly from the two Augustinian specialists, Lewis Ayers and Michael
Barnes. For timid souls overwhelmed by the doctrine of the trinity, take
comfort for this book is a model of lucidity, learning, and historical
sensitivity. You will understand Augustine, the trinity and at the same
time, the complex field of Christianity and religious pluralism. John-
son’s achievement is cause for celebration. This book will be a marker in
any subsequent reflection on the trinity and the world religions.
Johnson’s thesis and method is simple. He starts by asking: what
does Augustine teach us about the trinity? Specifically, what does he
teach us about the relationship of the economic and immanent Trinity;
what are the relations between the divine persons (between themselves
apart from creation; and externally in creation, providence, and
redemption); and what is the relationship of the vestiges of the trinity in
human experience with the divine trinity? His reading of Augustine is
deeply informed by the debates with which Augustine was engaged
and the historical issues to which he was attending. Johnson’s ability
lies in then taking this very careful explication and using it to analyze
the use of the trinity in four theologians drawing on the trinity in their
reflection on the world religions.
He chooses from differing denominational background: Mark Heim
(Baptist), Amos Yong (Pentecostal), Jacques Dupuis, and Raimundo
Panikkar (and Panikkar’s interpreter, Ewert Cousins – all Roman
Catholics). These ‘orthodox’ theologians want to employ the trinity in
differing ways but with a similar goal: to tentatively affirm the validity
of the non-Christian religions. Heim does this by envisaging Trinitarian
difference as underwriting the ‘difference’ of ends that the religions
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.