Adrian Graffy is a Scripture scholar and parish priest in the Roman Catholic diocese of Brentwood, England. As Director of the Commission for Evangelisation and Formation in the diocese he and his team arranged study days which drew large numbers to hear well qualified speakers. They set up the what good news website to accommodate the archive of talks. Fr Adrian is now parish priest in Gidea Park, director of the Scripture Working Group at the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, and a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
At the study day entitled ‘Wrestling with Romans’ on Saturday 8th March 2014 Fr Adrian considered perhaps the most difficult book in the Bible, the Letter to the Romans. This was arranged in preparation for the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. Martin Luther began lecturing on Romans in 1515, and in his ‘tower experience’ he received a new understanding of the ‘justice of God’, and understood that justification comes by faith. Fr Adrian surveyed the great commentaries on Romans, and took us through the whole epistle with fascinating insights.
Christians have always valued Romans and the study day helped a new generation to ‘wrestle’ with St Paul’s inspired masterpiece.