The Politics of Peace in Romans

This volume explores Paul’s use of Scripture and Roman imperialism, finding hermeneutical and theoretical clarity and a fresh understanding of peace in Romans. Dain Alexander Smith interprets Romans with postcolonial intertextuality to reveal that Romans employs a consistent textual strategy for discussing the gospel, justice, and peace. Smith thus focuses on 12:17–13:14 and 14:17–19, to provide the reader with fresh interpretive insights on the text of Romans.

Smith proposes that Romans presents a political theology of peace that is intertextually “double-voiced", that the pairing of peace and justice in Romans is primarily informed by the political discourses of LXX Isaiah and LXX Psalms, but suggesting that this pairing is also presented in contrast to the Roman Empire’s political ideals, as exemplified in the Pax Romana. Ultimately, Smith argues that placing Romans in postcolonial-intertextual dialogue reveals that Paul’s ethics construct a community that represents the justice and peace of God’s eschatological kingdom in contrast to the justice and peace of the Roman Empire.