BQ 827 – 7/2025
The Letter to the Romans as a charter for world mission

20. January 2025

Why dogmatics is only healthy as a doctrine of mission

(Bonn, 20.01.2025) 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 new book ‘Der Römerbrief als Charta der Weltmission’ [‘The letter to the Romans as a charter for world mission’] not only compiles Schirr­macher’s contributions on the subject since 1993, but 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.

An English translation is to follow shortly.

Bibliographical information

  • Thomas Paul Schirrmacher. Der Römerbrief als Charta der Weltmission: Warum Dogmatik nur als Missionslehre gesund ist. World of Theology Series der Weltweiten Evangelischen Allianz, Band 29. Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft: Bonn, 2024. Pp. 113. Pb. 16 Euro. ISBN 978-3-86269-264-4.

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