BQ 853 – 33/2025
English version of ‘The Letter to the Romans – a Charter for World Mission’ published

Why dogmatics is only healthy as a doctrine of mission

(Bonn, 12.05.2025) Since 1988, Prof. Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher has argued—first in essays, then in his commentary on the letter to the Romans—that the letter to the Romans primarily serves to justify world mission from the Holy Scriptures, i.e. the Old Testament, and that Paul’s theology is inextricably linked to his missionary practice.

“The introduction and conclusion of the letter to the Romans,” says Schirr­macher”, do not simply describe the occasion for the letter, but already set out the central theme. Dogmatics and mission are thus only the two flip sides of the same coin.” According to Schirrmacher, the Western church has strongly emphasized the dogmatic character of the letter to the Romans, but at the same time has all too often lost its missionary character.

The German version of the book was published in 2024. Now, the English version ‘The Letter to the Romans – a Charter for World Mission’ is available. Therein, not only Schirr­macher’s contributions on the subject since 1993 are compiled, but it also includes a com­prehensive history of the thesis that the letter to the Romans is a call to world mission (“mission thesis”), which compiles all the representatives known to the author since 1863.

Bibliographical information

• Thomas Paul Schirrmacher (ed.). The Letter to the Romans – a Charter for World Mission: Why Dogmatics is Only Healthy as a Doctrine of Mission. World of Theology Series 29. Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft: Bonn, 2025. 110 pp. Pb. 16 Euro. ISBN 978-3-86269-288-0.

Downloads and Links

• Foto: Greek papyrus 𝔓¹¹⁸, 3rd century, University of Cologne One of the earliest surviving copies of the Epistle to the Romans Contents: Romans 15:26–27, 32-33; 16:1, 4–7, 11–12 Photographed in an exhibition at the Bible Museum of the University of Münster © Thomas Schirrmacher
• Author’s page for the book with book download: https://thomasschirrmacher.net/?p=22459
• Author’s page for the German version with book download: https://thomasschirrmacher.info/?p=22459
• Order option: https://vkwonline.com/The-Letter-to-the-Romans-as-a-Charter-for-World-Mission