Date

5-20-2026

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Bible Exposition (PhD)

Chair

Andreas Johannes Köstenberger

Keywords

Biblical Anthropology, Biblical Theology, Bible Exposition, Contrary to Nature, Creation Theology, Divine Revelation, First-Century Rome, God’s Design, God's Plan of Salvation, God's Righteousness, Gospel Transformation, Hermeneutical Triad, History of Redemption, Homosexuality, Human Nature, Idolatry, Imago Dei, Intertextuality, New Creation, Para Physis, Pauline Anthropology, Pauline Soteriology, Pauline Theology, Redemptive History, Restoration in Christ, Righteousness of God, Romans 1:18–32, Salvation History, Sexual Ethics, Sin, Sovereign Creator, The Fall of Man, The Gospel, Transformation.

Disciplines

Anthropology | Christianity

Abstract

The world in which the Apostle Paul ministered was not a theological vacuum, but a sophisticated marketplace of competing worldviews and diverse moral frameworks. Within the specific milieu of first-century Rome, the cultural forces of Stoic philosophy, Roman imperial ideology, and pagan polytheism created an environment where complex expressions of human nature and sexuality emerged. Dominant Roman social stratifications often celebrated or normalized same-sex relations and blurred the distinctions of the created order. Paul found himself proclaiming a message of a Sovereign Creator in a society that had been conditioned for centuries to view the human nature through the lens of power, myth, and personal desire rather than divine design. While the religious systems of his day offered various frameworks for understanding the human condition, Paul skillfully leveraged the foundational concepts of antecedent theology and the creation narrative to provide a superior anthropological vision that addressed the root of sexual and moral disorder. This dissertation contends that the Apostle Paul’s argument in Romans 1:18–32 is a deliberate and polemic application of creation theology and redemptive history intended to define the objective boundaries of human nature. By engaging a Roman culture marked by the rejection of the Creator in favor of the creature, Paul demonstrates that idolatry precipitates a profound ontological and moral "exchange" that fractures the Imago Dei. Utilizing a redemptive-historical methodology that examines antecedent theology through a multifaceted analysis of the image of God—substantive, relational, and functional—this study argues that Paul’s ethical critique, specifically his use of the term para physin (contrary to nature), is not a reaction to transient social mores but is firmly anchored in the foundational creation narrative of Genesis 1 and 2. The research concludes by establishing a permanent Pauline biblical-theological framework—grounded in creation theology—for human identity, asserting that the moral restoration of humanity is found exclusively through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the experience of becoming a new creation within the redemptive plan of salvation. Ultimately, this work provides a robust theological foundation for the church to engage contemporary cultural challenges regarding anthropology and sexuality, demonstrating that true restoration is found only by remaining faithful to the Sovereign Creator's original design.

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