Paul's Flesh: A Disabled Reading of Flesh/Spirit Dualism (original) (raw)
Related papers
Paul, body theology, and morality: Parameters for a discussion
Neotestamentica, 2005
The ambivalence towards the Pauline documents and their legacy is probably nowhere as strong as in the interplay between morality, and the materiality-and corporeality in particular¯of human existence. Paul is often quoted in the formulation of Christian thought and ethics, but his ...
Moral Aspects of the Relational Nature of the Human Body in Paul's Theology
Images of the Human Being: Eighth International East-West Symposium of New Testament Scholars, Caraiman Monastery, May 26 to 31, 2019 (WUNT 521; Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen 2024), 311–320., 2024
The moral aspects of the relational nature of the human body in the theology of Paul greatly differ from the views concerning the body which are popular in modern European and American culture. The body is not the property of the self. The body belongs to someone else: the Lord and, in case of being married, the spouse. The body can and should be offered to God and to others. The Pauline thought that we do not possess our bodies is certainly challenging for our modern moral discourses. The paper reconsiders the importance of Paul’s anthropological-moral idea that our bodies belong to others, and that we can offer them to others. It also offers challenging exegetical analyses of the Pauline texts 1 Cor 7:10–11, 27–28; Rom 7:2–3 (as presenting the possibility of legal divorce in an unequal legal contract based on Deut 24:1, 3 and not on Mk 10:11–12) and Rom 12:1 (as a sequentially organized four-element reworking of 1 Cor 11:24).
The multi-faceted and initially bewildering language of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 engages the present-day reader with an unsettling and complex understanding of what it means to talk of the body. This presents a fascinating text to consider inter-relatedness of human bodies, concepts which imply both limit and opportunity. Elizabeth Kent, a Methodist, notes that ‘having a body is a shared feature of human existence, though the subjective experience of being embodied is unique to every person’, echoing the strong emphasis on the universal experience of embodiment echoed in theological reflection. This universal yet subjective experience is embedded in the text of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, which is recognised in one substantive commentary as being substantially concerned with ‘the Theology of the Body’. From this text, a consideration of human existence in contemporary culture can be considered. This paper argues that intertwined and complex nature of this passage - where Paul interchangeably refers to individual bodies and the body of Christ - gives important clues as to one biblical ethic of what it might mean to be human. The mesh of ethics and theology in this passage, then, echoes the complexity of living as a human being in contemporary culture. This paper begins to consider these challenges through an engagement with the text of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20.
The Grounding of Paul's Pneumatology in his Christology in 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16
Wipf and Stock , 2017
key words: pneumatic hermeneutic, wisdom, cross, pneumatology, exegesis The cross of Christ crucified symbolized the central theme of Paul’s ministry. In his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle commenced his correspondence with “the message about the cross” and “power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18, NRSV). The proposal for this paper utilizes the method analogia scripturae. Set within the wisdom motif of the Greco-Roman world, this study is dedicated to the examination of the apostle’s Christology in the context of 1 Cor. 1:18-25 and the Pneumatology in 1 Cor. 2:9-16 as both pericopes are juxtaposed in his epistle. Essentially, the thesis concerns the grounding of the Pneumatology of Paul with his Christology in 1 Corinthians. The Corinthian church required clarification and pastoral wisdom with their pneumatic experiences; thus, Paul recognized that a strong theology of the cross complemented their encounters with the Spirit. The question for biblical studies involves a lively tension of the Pneumatology of the Spirit with a robust Christology. Because the power of God throughout this passage has the cross as its paradigm, the structure of the paper leds to the significance of the apostle’s pneumatological contribution of the cross and Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:18; 2:2). For this reason, a strong Christology must ground the Pneumatology of the Pauline corpus. This study in biblical literature commences a new discussion in ecumenical dialogue between pneumatic experiences in the church and christological issues in scripture.
The Body for a Temple, a Temple for a Body: An Examination of Bodily Metaphors in 1 Corinthians
2010
In 1 Corinthians, Paul seeks to reunite the Corinthian community through his use of two bodily metaphors: the body (sōma) of Christ and the temple (naos) of the Spirit. Through the use of these two metaphors, Paul redefines both sōma and naos. This paper seeks to understand why Paul utilized these metaphors and the language of sōma and naos. Both metaphors emphasize the physical body and the relationships of the community, each of which is integral to the identity of followers of Christ.
People with disabilities embody essential aspects of access to divine equality and justice in church-communities enacting the sacraments’ invitation to God’s passionate inclusion. We illuminate the theological reality that Jean Vanier calls the “way of the heart” (1998). Through our alternative episteme, or mode of knowledge (Isasi-Diaz 2012), Christians with disabilities testify to baptism and Holy Communion’s summons to the symmetrical sharing of power. We demonstrate vital human interdependence and difference by living out what Miroslav Volf calls “double vision” (1996). We show how the Church can address diversity and post-modernity by displaying the “power made perfect in weakness” that Jesus reveals through his ministry, his Cross, and his Resurrection (1 Corinthians 12:9). My presentation, a distillation of my dissertation proposal that will require audiovisual aids, will confront the Church’s acceptance of Western societies’ normative ableism: people with disabilities are excluded from the Church’s life, and so we often refuse to accept its compassionate welcome (Betcher 2007, Block 2002, Eiesland 1994). I will engage this dilemma by proposing a transformative and sacramental ecclesiology of disability. First, I will outline a radically-Christocentric theology of embodiment, based in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Second, drawing on Brett Webb-Mitchell’s and Jennie Block’s insights, I will show how the Church has both succeeded and failed to embody this theology in its role as Christ’s earthly Body that includes disability. Third, through Kathy Black’s and Webb-Mitchell’s assertions, I will explore the theological facets of physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual access to churchly communities for Christians with disabilities; fourth, calling on Volf and Vanier among others, I will describe the practical and pneumatological aspects of this multifaceted access. Finally, explicating Amos Yong’s pneumatological paradigm, I will create an embodied eschatology of disability.
Paul ' s Use of the Analogy of the Body of Christ-With Special Reference to 1 Corinthians 12
2011
THE subject of the church as the Body of Christ in Pauline theology is one which has received a great deal of attention and has produced a wide divergence in views1• As a consequence, this essay cannot hope either to summarize the work done in this area or to enter into detailed debate with the various positions that have been adopted. We shall approach the problem from the perspectives of how Paul uses the Body of Christ as an analogy and whether more than an analogy is implied. In doing this our emphasis will be on understanding Paul's use of the Body of Christ concept in the context of his letters and against the background of the situation of the churches to which he was writing. As the analogy is worked out most fully in 1 Corinthians 12, this provides a suitable focus for discussion. As Ruef notes2, the two main poles around which the debate about the Body of Christ concept in Paul has taken place are, on the one hand, that it is a key, if not the key, in Paul's theolo...