Paul and His Letter to the Romans: Part Two (Romans 6-11) (Udemy.com)

This was awesome. Learned so much, and NT Wright is amazing. I missed having visuals - notes/graphs, etc.

Romans has always been difficult for me to sort through. I feel like I understand so much more. Especially Gods plan from the beginning to include ALL of the world in His redemptive story. I am looking forward to the third of this series next! I appreciate that this series will be available to me always. It's not a one and done. I can review this material anytime I wish. Thank You Professors Wright and Semuth.

I attended & graduated from Boston University School of Theology with a Masters Degree, but there is so much to learn in seminary. Oftentimes in Seminary all we really learn about subjects is a survey, whether in Biblical Counseling or Biblical Studies. I am still learning and growing. I found this Chapter 6 of Romans fascinating. I've asked the question often, "If I'm a New Creation, in Christ, why do I still feel tempted by sin? Why do I not feel like I've become an overcomer? This chapter gave me some answers and I am glad others are questioning this victory that doesn't always feel like a victory.

Professor Tom Wright eloquently presents Paul's theology, unpacking it, bringing it's message into the real world of ancient Israel and the early church. In doing so he brings a clarity to the text, a clarity who us as gentile Christians would find it very, very difficult to grasp the true meaning of what Paul was trying to say to the church in Rome. I am also eager to digest these lessons and present them at Bible study nights, so that we can all share in the blessings of this book and the authors; The Holy Spirit & Paul. Of course if they desire to understand the letter to the Romans more clearly, I will point out Udemy and the courses they offer. Thank you dearly, brother Tom Wright. God Bless, Rob :)

Excellent & insightful teaching on some difficult passages. Excellent teaching of the background from OT, Passover, New Inheritance, Psalms, Deuteronomy 30, Daniel 7. Intertwines these ideas as most teachers fail to do. I love how he ties Romans to the promises of God to Abraham, and that Abraham is not simply an illustration of faithfulness, but is the recipient of the promise that God would rescue the creation through his descendant, and that even though Israel failed miserably, Jesus is the faithful Israelite who insures that God is faithful to his promises. Thereby, it is by the faithfulness of Jesus that we are rescued, not simply by faith.

I am enjoying the layout of this course more than any other that I have taken. Having an overview, followed by an exegesis, section by section is awesome. For those of us who have been students of the Word and are in the position of teaching others, this is a gift. There are countless sources for remedial and cursory treatments of Scripture, but very few resources that take you into the passage and allow you to interact with it as a way of learning and discipling you in the Word. Thank you! Please consider teaching the rest of the books of the Bible in this :seminarian way."

Well, Bishop Wright brings a lifetime of scholarship on a subject he so obviously loves into the explication of very dense material. I am not a fan of Paul but Wright has expanded my appreciation of Paul's qualities. One of the interesting things about Wright's description is his reference to the 'spiral' that Paul is constructing like a great symphonic movement. I take his point, but this 'spiral' motif is characteristic of a NF on the Myers-Briggs-Keirsey. I am an SP and, so far, Paul's argument is proceeding in pretty much in a straight line and by the numbers. In this regards, Ravel's Balero satisfies my sense of the Hegelian aspect of the argument while satisfying Wright's sense of the building of the argument to a definitive conclusion, but instead of spiral building forever upward, it is a spiral growing increasingly compressed as it builds element upon element. Now, as those who follow this series know, I am of the opinion that the Gospel of Mark was written by the Roman centurion Cornelius and that his perspective on the cross was far closer to the current Eastern Orthodox position that the cross is the point of departure necessary for the Resurrection, which, in theological terms, was the Big Bang Theory writ large for the Roman soldiers who knew nothing about Jewish theology. I am convinced by this lecture series that Paul composed Romans specifically for the emerging Pagan Christian churches in Rome, especially the Praetorium Guard which he, Paul, instructs during his time there. This argument would appeal to the straight forward methods of inquiry of the soldiers that is reflected in Mark. As Wright observes, the Old Testament is a narrative in need of an ending. In this regards, it is the Illiad of the Jewish culture and the four Gospels the Odyssey, where Wiley Odysseus reflects the values of Classic Greece, Obedient Jesus reflects the values of the Jewish culture. And it is this 'obedient' element of Jesus in the completion of His mission that the centurion in Matthew responded to and the singular virtue common to military ethos of the soldiers who interacted with Jesus. The soldiers didn't care what came before the resurrection, but as the legend of the event spread by soldiery through the Empire, it became of interest to the elite Praetorium Guard. The issue was epistemological for them, as Wright, himself, says, a new way of knowing. And Wright's explication tends to validate this speculation.

It has been a real privilege to receive instruction from Professor Wright. I didn't do the first part of this course, but I still feel as though I have learnt a great deal about Paul, the letter to the Romans and Christianity in general. Has it been easy, well for me "no", but then I never went to university, so this has been a really remarkable experience. The good thing is, one can always repeat the lecture until the information really sinks in! It is good to exercise one's brain even in one's later years. In fact it is invigorating!

The content of this course continues to be outstanding. (Remember this is the second part of a longer sequence of courses.) Prof. Wright's lectures are so dense and rich that you will likely continue to benefit from them with each successive view. If there is a weakness, it is Udemy's limitation of the assessments to multiple-choice questions. In the end, it's a minor problem which is offset by good interaction in the Q&A and the possibility of having Prof. Wright answer a question personally.

I've been looking for something like this interpretation and teaching for a long time. I thoroughly appreciate Professor Wright's ability to interpret Romans from Paul's Jewish point of view in a way that ties the entire book of Romans together from start to finish, as well as revealing much of the Old Testament scripture and their influence on Paul's thoughts. Whereas formerly I used to shrug my shoulders and read on, I now see questions answered by a unified interpretation. And best of all, it's a cohesive interpretation that puts Jesus the Messiah firmly at the center of everything. I hope and pray there is much good fruit produced in all our lives as a result of these teachings. Looking forward to the next course! Thank you!