Frederick Dale BRUNER. The Letter to the Romans: A Short Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2021. pp. 229. $26.99 pb. ISBN: 978-0-8028-7943-1. Reviewed by Daniel LLOYD, Saint Leo University, Charleston, SC 29406.

Bruner’s short commentary on Romans provides a wonderful resource for students, teachers, and pastors, especially in Reformed traditions. Its strength derives, in part, from it not really fitting the description of a typical commentary. Rather, it effectively blends genres in order to present a passionate, readable, and scholarly-anchored account of Paul’s letter. The preface to the work gives his sixteen-word summation of Romans, based on 3:21-26. Bruner puts it this way: “human beings can have a perfectly right relationship with God—by simple faith in his Christ” (p. viii). This formulation drives the presentation of the commentary as a whole, and Bruner returns to the idea often to explore the many ways in which Romans, the whole canon, and Christian tradition in general are founded on this principle.

The commentary’s organization relies on the standard verse-by-verse or section-by-section approach. The sections often include fairly typical presentations from various perspectives, which Bruner brings up to adjudicate. But Bruner’s approach is less conventionally interested in an academic approach and more so on inviting readers into being personally challenged by the Gospel. To this end, he frequently uses the commentary sections to explore complementary interpretations of the text which work to encourage his readers to see the depth and complexity of Paul’s work. (See, for example, the perspectives he includes concerning the Jewish and Gentile Christians of Romans 11:11-24 on p. 150.) Working frequently, but not exclusively, with scholars of the Reformed tradition, Bruner layers perspectives, giving readers something of a theological compendium on particular sections and topics. One obvious benefit to this structure is that it makes it easy for readers to get a sense of the contents of different commentaries’ contents so that they can pursue authors of their liking more readily. (Some irregularities in quotations should lead those quoting the text to observe caution and double check everything. See, for example, pp. 8 and 82 in which Bruner gives quotations as simply coming from Joseph Fitzmyer when in fact Fitzmyer is quoting other authors, Nygren and Lietzmann respectively, on the pages Bruner indicates.)

Other atypical aspects to Bruner’s commentary are the excurses he uses. For example, he assembles sometimes lengthy quotations from different parts of the Old Testament and New Testament in order to provide readers with immediate access to related, inspired perspectives on a given topic. This is essentially a canonical approach to interpretation, and it is highly effective. One such instance includes a lengthy section devoted to the topic of the secular government’s authority over Christian lives as brought up by Romans 13 (p. 164-173). Bruner quotes and comments on Revelation 13:1-8 and Matthew 22:15-22. He then spends a section on a variety of theological perspectives (including those from Stott, Kӓsemann, Wilckens, Moo, and Keck). Other short sections on the Theological Declaration of Barmen, South Africa’s Apartheid history, and the Black Lives Matter movement follow.

The same kind of canonical and traditional approach can be seen in Bruner’s treatment of Romans 3:21-26 (see pp. 39-61). Since the message of this section grounds Bruner’s interpretation of the letter as a whole, it is not surprising that he works through various passages from the New Testament which he sees as, essentially, commentaries on Romans 3. He also provides and discusses two historically and theologically important translations of the text (from Luther and Tyndale), two sections of interpretation of the passage in the Heidelbert Catechism, the Lutheran and Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, as well as a range of modern biblical commentaries.

Although primarily academic in essence, Bruner is not shy about including personal anecdotes and perspectives. The beginning of the chapter on Romans 14:1-15:13 includes a story about Brunner’s wife’s experience growing up in a strictly fundamentalist background. He uses this as a way to show how their lives were later and beneficially shaped by principles of flexibility as found in Paul’s counsel to the Romans (p. 176-178). Such inclusions catch the reader’s attention and help expand the appreciation for the inspired text’s applications in all generations.

Bruner’s book is a terrific resource for a short study on Romans or as an additional supplement to a more serious study. It will be used profitably for study, teaching, and preaching.