Reply #10: The Epistle of Paul to the Romans

[Arianrhod]

is, IMO, one of the greatest Gnostic works ever written, if not the greatest religious treatise in the world. Simple, concise, logical, passionate, eloquent: it presents the human dilemma succinctly, condensing all of Christian doctrine into 16 chapters. Ignore Paul's personal hangups with sex; they are irrelevant to the theme, but present his own humanity in the argument, lending it power (and disclaiming the theory that this is god's word). Kierkegaard would have approved, even if Sartre wouldn't.

Romans 7:24

"O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Followed closely by the autobiographical Epistle to the Galatians.

Galatians 1:15-16a

"But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me. . . ."

BTW, it is my opinion that it is not possible to call oneself an educated Westerner, and not have at least a passing understanding of the Bible. . . .