Morality, Not Mortality

This study examines how Paul treats death as a present human condition in Romans 5 through 8. It reads that language against the backdrop of Hellenistic moral-psychological thought, where death names a state of moral bondage in which the rational will is overpowered by passions tied to the body. The author argues that this kind of death, rather than bodily mortality or a supernatural power called Death, entered the world when Adam and Eve transgressed in Eden.

According to the book, this moral death was imposed on humanity as a judgment for that first transgression, and its effect was to increase sinful behavior, which in turn magnifies the revelation of God's grace through Jesus Christ. The study also reinterprets the statement in Romans 8 that creation was subjected to corruption and futility. Here the author contends that the phrase refers to the harmful effects of human moral corruption, not to physical decay and death.

The central claim is that the predicament occupying so much of Paul's attention in Romans 5 through 8 concerns morality rather than mortality.