The Meaning of Existential Interpretation

(ADDRESS TO THE GREEKS 1:18-32)

Chapter 1
1:16-17     Paul's Introduction
1:18-20     Natural Human Knowledge of the Divine
1:21-23     Our Natural Idolatry
1:24-25     Natural Consequences

(ADDRESS TO THE JEWS 2:1-3:20)

Chapter 2
2:1-4         Even You Jews are Guilty
2:5-10       Old Testament Moralism---Justification by Works
2:11-15     Can Gentiles Be Good?
2:25-29     The True Circumcision, the True Jew

Chapter 3
3:9             Bondage to Existential Guilt
3:19-20     Law Brings only the Awareness of Guilt
3:21-22     From Indictment to Acquittal
3:23-24     From Slavery to Freedom
3:25          The Expiation of Sin
3:25-26     Overlooking Former Sins
3:27-28     Faith in Not a Work
3:29-31     Faith Fulfills the True Intention of the Law

Chapter 4
4:1-5         Abraham, the Father of Faith
4:6-8         Forgiveness
4:9-12       Abraham Became Existentially Free
                    while he was Uncircumcised
4:13-16     The Promise on the Basis of Faith, not Law
4:17-25     Faith as Absolute Trust

Chapter 5
5:1-2         Justification---Peace---Grace---Hope
5:3-5         Our New Capacity to Endure Suffering
                      Shows that Our Hope is not Groundless
5:6-9         Christ Died for Us
5:10-11     Reconciliation
5:12-14     Existential Guilt and Ontological Anxiety
5:15-21     Adam and Christ:
                      Our Existential Predicament and Existential Freedom
Chapter 6
6:1-2         Having Become Existentially Free,
                      Are We Automatically Free from Sin?
6:3-4         Baptism as the Symbol of Existential Change
6:5-7         Getting a New Self
6:12-19     From the Old Slavery to the New Freedom
6:20-23     The Salary Sin Pays is Death, but Your Gift is Life

Chapter 7
7:1-4         Freedom from the Law
7:5-6         To Serve You in a New Way
7:7-11       How the Law Discloses Guilt and Death
7:14-15,    The Dynamics of Existential Guilt
  21-15

Chapter 8
8:1-4         From Sin and Death to Life under the Spirit:
                      From Our Existential Predicament to Existential Freedom
8:5-8         The Merely-Human Self and the Existentially-Free Self
8:9-13       The Indwelling of Your Spirit
                      ---The New Life of Existential Freedom
8:14-17     Adoption into Your Family
8:18-25     Saved in Hope: The Forward Glow of Existential Freedom
8:26-27     Your Spirit Helps Us to Pray:
                      Becoming Attuned to Existential Freedom
8:28-30     Our Dependence on Your Existential Freedom
8:31-39     Can Anything Separate Us from You?

Chapters 9-11
9:10-23      Toying with Predestination
9:30-10:4   Why Gentiles are Being Liberated while Jews are Being Lost
10:10-15    Sharing the Message of Existential Freedom
11:16-24    The Gift of Grafting-in

Chapters 12-15
12:1-2         How to Accept Existential Freedom
14:13-17     Moral Differences among the Existentially Free
14:22-23     Instead of Ethics: Living within Existential Freedom
15:13          Closing Prayer

Appendix: From Existential Guilt to Existential Freedom
I. MORAL CONSCIENCE vs. EXISTENTIAL GUILT
     1. General Description
     2. Cause
     3. Duration
     4. Scope
     5. Cure
II. HOW MORAL CONSCIENCE AND EXISTENTIAL GUILT MIX
III. HOW DO WE DISCOVER EXISTENTIAL GUILT?
     1. Exaggerated guilt
     2. Misassigned guilt
     3. Recurrent guilt
     4. On/off guilt
     5. Uncaused guilt
IV. EXISTENTIAL UNEASINESS
V. WAYS OF RESPONDING TO EXISTENTIAL GUILT
VI. RELEASE FROM EXISTENTIAL GUILT

    The short title of the Second Edition, now available, is
Romans: An Existential Interpretation,
but the cover still says:
An Existential Interpretation of Paul's Letter to the Romans.
The third edition (projected for 200?) might be called
Romans Demythologized:
An Existential Interpretation of Paul's Letter to the Romans.