This book is about how to read Paul's letters as first-century epistles. A new method is worked out by studying Romans 1.16 - 4.25. The first step is to consider what Paul was aiming to say to the Romans; the second is to examine Paul's thought as we see it in the passage. The result is a presentation of Romans as a very practical letter, in which we see justification by grace through faith as theology at work. The principles of this new method are explained and some older ideas challenged.

"...a helpful study..."

"Dabourne's book is a helpful study of the opening of the main argument in Romans. It moves kour attention back to the occasion of the text's first reading and thus forces us to pay closer attention to the text itself."