Decolonizing Christianity: Another look at Romans 3 and the meaning of Yom Kippur

Send us Fan MailWe really must decolonize Christianity if we are ever going to free ourselves from Christian Nationalism and help people grow spiritually. Romans 3 is the heart of the doctrine of Total Depravity and the Penal Substitutionary theory of Atonement. This came from Augustine, Anselm and then culminated in Calvin. But it depends on a deeply antisemitic reading of Romans 3 and the coopting of Paul's message for systematic theology. In this episode, I describe a modern, open and affirming faith, that is free from the bondage of these outdated theologies. We can escape the tyranny of bad theology to develop a more holistic faith. Many people think Romans 3:10-18 “There is no one who is righteous, not even one” as proof of Total Depravity and Romans 3:25 “Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” as proof of PSA without a second thought. But Calvin literally ignored half of Paul's argument and then universalized it to create his theology. But if you read closely Romans is a grand argument between Paul & an imaginary opponent which scholars call the interlocutor. Paul purposely cherrypicked the Old Testament to create his diatribe of depravity as one side of the argument. He references the Hiiasterion, the Mercy Seat of Yom Kippur to show how Christ covers sin not substitutionary propitiation.