Into the Heart of Romans

A Deep Dive into Paul's Greatest Letter

By: N. T. Wright

Narrated by: John Sackville

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

An in-depth study of Romans from today's foremost interpreter of Paul.

Romans is often and for good reason considered a crux of Christian thought and theology, the greatest of Paul's letters. And within Romans, chapter 8 is one of the most spectacular pieces of early Christian writing.

But to many readers, Romans can be a deceptively difficult book. Its scope and basic meaning may be clear, but it can be hard to see how it all fits together into a cohesive, if complex, doctrinal argument.

N. T. Wright—widely regarded as the most influential commentator and interpreter of Paul—deftly unpacks this dense and sometimes elusive letter, detailing Paul's arguments and showing how it illuminates the Gospel from the promises to Abraham through the visions of Revelation. Wright takes a deep dive into Romans 8, showing how it illuminates so much else that God reveals in Scripture: God the Father, Christology, and the Spirit; Jesus' Messiahship, cross, resurrection, and ascension; salvation, redemption, and adoption; suffering and glory; holiness and hope.

Into the Heart of Romans will help you become familiar with the book of Romans in a deeper way that will also deepen your understanding and appreciation of the Gospel itself.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 N. T. Wright (P)2023 Zondervan Academic

The Challenge of Romans

I deeply love that Bishop Tom continually challenges complacent acceptance of "what we've always supposed" about any and all of the Books & Letters of the New Testament.

This is quite a thorough response to John Piper's attempts to devalue & denigrate Bishop Tom's scholarship
& study.

Excellent deep dive

This centers on Romans 8, which Wright contends (and I agree) is the very heart of Paul’s strongest letter and the encapsulation of Paul’s theological vision. If you like Wright, you will enjoy this deep dive into Romans 8. I enjoyed this very much.

If you are not familiar with Wright’s work or the “New Perspective on Paul” school of thought, some of his theories may sound a little unusual. But Wright’s analysis is thoroughly grounded in scripture and (I think) quite sound. For a good introduction to Wright’s work, read Surprised by Hope.

Clarity, pace, rythym

Was well done. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It kept me riveted. The pace, clarity, and rythym were just right.

Very nice.

If you want to understand the heart of Romans, listen to this book.

The narrator has a very nice voice, and does a nice job pronouncing Greek and Hebrew words .

This author is a sparkling gem in God’s Kingdom

I first heard Dr. Wright in a cassette series “Romans in a Week,” a series of lectures he gave at Regent in Vancouver long ago. I could not have been more impressed at the time - but I am now more impressed having listened to this book.

He never stops digging for greater revelation. I am so grateful he chose a career as historian/theologian, since I believe his intellect would have allowed him to excel as a surgeon or in any number of complex professions.

But he chose to give his gifts and talents to the Lord, who in turn has given us access to this treasure chest of insight and practical application.

Once again, Dr. Wright, “well done thou good and faithful servant…” Please “remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing this: your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Cor 15:58.

Interesting conclusions for Romans

I enjoyed the overall theme while having some arguments left still in the balance, but strongly agree with the way Scripture was used for support, We live in a time where so much information is readily available it is wonderful when it;s balanced with truth as Wright made available in this fascinating book.

Man’s vocation

Very clear presentation of Jesus as priest and king. Excellent highlight in Romans Chapter eight of how we are joined into Jesus’ vocation (co-ruling with Him)and share with Him the inheritance of this world. This is a very convincing interpretation of Rom. 5-8 as seen by Paul as stepping thru “New Exodus and Passover “. Inspiring look at what it means to be a fully developed “human”-fulfilling the priestly and ruling role of mankind created in God’s image.

The human vacation

N.T. Wright has done it again, with a beautiful down to Earth yet revelatory exposition of Romans 8.

Deep dive into Romans 8

My general tendency these days with NT Wright is to listen to the book to get the argument as a whole and then wait a bit and go back and reread it in print later. I listened to this quickly in the background and did not take any notes. If you want a broad overview of the book in podcast form, Seminary Dropout and The Holy Post have good interviews. (Holy Post Interview starts at 57 minutes).

The broad summary of this deep dive into a single chapter of Romans is that Romans 8 talks about the vocation of the Christian, not salvation and heaven. That main point is important, and it is a good corrective. But maybe more important than that particular message of the book is how Wright uses this book on Romans 8 to teach how to slowly read and interpret the Bible, especially for those that do not have enough Greek to read the Bible on their own in the original language.

Into the Heart of Romans is a book about interpretation and showing the importance of original language and scholarship in the original languages, not just the “plain reading of scripture.” Wright uses a simple set of questions to examine how each part of the chapter relates to the part before it and how that fits into the argument of the chapter and the book.

I know many people are fans of verse-by-verse preaching. I am not particularly a fan of that style because it often distorts how we view scripture as a whole. There is value in close reading of scripture in study, but not from the pulpit over a long period of time. If you are interested in a close reading of scripture, especially because Romans tend to be such a beloved book by people who like theology, this book is particularly helpful.

Wright has been important in helping the modern church reimagine the importance of Christ’s return and how the idea of heaven was distorted over the past couple hundred years. And I think Into The Heart of Romans furthers that by pointing out that the vocation of being a Christian in this life is important, not just “believe the right things and go to heaven.”

One last point that is particularly helpful in Into the Heart of Romans is that throughout the book Wright is talking about how his current understanding of this chapter has changed relatively recently. This is a book about how he changed his mind about interpreting this chapter in response to several of his students’ work. Again, there is real importance in this book illustrating the right way to respond to changing our minds in public, which is helpful beyond the actual main argument of the book.

incisive and clever

Excellent commentary on Romans 8. You learn some Greek along the way. Heartily enjoyable and smart