Resurrecting Justice Talks

To access the Resurrecting Justice Live Stream, please click on YOUTUBE.

Please join Rev. Myron Penner as he hosts Dr. Douglas Harink for a series of discussions during the season of Lent. This series more or less follows the text of Romans from beginning to end, aiming to help readers trace the theme of justice throughout Paul’s letter. The format of each session will be a 10-15 minute presentation by Dr. Douglas Harink, an interview/conversation with Rev. Myron Penner, followed by questions from the audience (which can be submitted to Rev. Myron by text at 587-334-2130). Each discussion will be live streamed on the St. Paul’s YouTube channel on Tuesday evenings at 7:00PM (starting Feb. 23). To access the Resurrecting Justice Live Stream, please click on YOUTUBE.

Schedule of Discussions:

• February 23: The Apocalypse of Justice - Romans 1-3; Resurrecting Justice chs. 1-3
  Question: What is justice, according to Paul’s Letter to the Romans? How is that (justice) connected to the gospel Paul announces?
  
• March 2: The Way, Truth, and Life of Justice - Romans 4-6; Resurrecting Justice chs. 4-6
  Question: Can we be just? What does justice look like (i.e., how does it happen) in the world?
  
• March 9: Justice in Law or Spirit - Romans 7-8; Resurrecting Justice chs. 7-8
  Question: How does justice relate to law?
  
• March 16: Justice, Israel, and Nations (and Why Israel Matters) - Romans 9-11, 13; Resurrecting Justice chs. 9, 11
  Question: How does the justice Paul announces in his gospel connected to the people of Israel? What does this mean for the politics of justice?
  
• March 23: Social Justice: Table and Mission - Romans 12, 14-16; Resurrecting Justice chs. 10, 12-13

The theme of justice pervades the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And all Christians agree that justice is important. We often disagree, however, about what justice means, both in Scripture and for us today. Many turn to Old Testament laws, the prophets, and the life of Jesus to find biblical guidance on justice, but few think of searching the letters of Paul. Readers frequently miss a key source, a writing in which justice is actually the central concern: the book of Romans.

In Resurrecting Justice, theologian Douglas Harink invites readers to rediscover Romans as a treatise on justice. He traces Paul's thinking on this theme through a sequential reading of the book, finding in each passage facets of the gospel's primary claim—that God accomplishes justice in the death and resurrection of Jesus Messiah. By rendering forms of the Greek word dikaiosynē as "just" or "justice," Harink emphasizes the inseparability of personal, social, and political uprightness that was clear to Paul but is obscured in modern translations' use of the words "righteous" and "righteousness" instead.

Dr. Douglas Harink is Professor Emeritus of Theology at The King’s University. His primary areas of research and publication are modern theology and St Paul, often working to bring these two subjects together. He is the author of (among other works) a commentary on 1 and 2 Peter in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (2010) and recently Resurrecting Justice: Reading Romans for the Life of the World (IVP Academic, 2020), on which this series is based. He is married to Debby and has two married daughters and a grandson. In another version of his life he might have been an ornithologist.