This study is a fresh approach to Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Taking Paul's Jewish background seriously, it challenges the prevailing consensus that Paul's object in the first three chapters is to conclude that everyone is under the power of sin. Davies shows that in Paul's thinking there has always been a category of the righteous, those who live by faith and express their faith in obedience. Paul's indictment of Jews and Gentiles, therefore, is an indictment of only the wicked among Jews and Gentiles, not of the righteous.

The Diocese of Sydney is admired, hated, loved, and feared. While often criticized as no longer Anglican, it has at its heart an adherence to classic Anglicanism. While to some it is a beacon in the darkness, to others it is like a threatening bushfire. It is very large, very wealthy, and very influential in other places. Its opposition to ordaining women priests, and, in many parishes, to women preaching, mystifies and angers many Anglicans within and outside its boundaries. What makes this diocese such a phenomenon? The answer lies in its history: in the men and women who shaped it, in a...