Romans and the Apologetic Tradition: The Purpose, Genre and Audience of Paul’s Letter

This study shows how classical Greek and Hellenistic philosophical and ethical traditions inform Paul’s Letter to the Romans. It concentrates especially on Protreptic, a kind of literature deriving its name from the title of a lost writing of Aristotle that has been largely reconstructed by scholars in our time. The Protreptic writers seek to awaken their readers to a realization of human frailty and then to commit themselves to a new way of life. Guerra shows also how the political conditions of Nero’s Rome are reflected herein.