“Remain in Your Calling”

Paul and the Continuation of Social Identities in 1 Corinthians

J. Brian Tucker

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781610973939
  9781498260466
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630875978
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Remain in Your Calling explores the way the Apostle Paul negotiates and transforms existing social identities of the Corinthian Christ-followers in order to extend his gentile mission. Building on the findings of Tucker's first monograph, You Belong to Christ: Paul and the Formation of Social Identity in 1 Corinthians 1-4, this work expands the focus to the rest of 1 Corinthians. The study addresses the way Paul forms Christ-movement identity and the kind of identity that emerges from his kinship formation. It examines the way previous Jewish and gentile social identities continue but are also transformed "in Christ." It then provides case studies from 1 Corinthians that show the way social-scientific criticism and ancient source material provide insights concerning Paul's formational goals. The first looks at the way Roman water practices and patronage influence baptismal practices in Corinth. The next uncovers the challenges associated with the transformation of the Roman household when it functions as sacred space within the ekklesia. The final study investigates the way Paul uses apocalyptic discourse to recontextualize the Corinthians' identity in order to remind them that God, rather than the Roman Empire, is in control of history.

1

Introduction

This study argues that existing social identities and the continuation of difference mattered to the Apostle Paul, and that he viewed them as fundamentally significant in the lives of Christ-followers. This study is not a call to inertia. It is not designed to (re)inscribe hegemonic discourses that reify asymmetrical social relationships. Rather, the primary aim of this study is to show how Paul negotiates and transforms existing social identities of Christ-followers in order to extend the Pauline mission in Corinth. It accomplishes this through an investigation of 1 Corinthians. It builds on my findings in You Belong to Christ: Paul and the Formation of Social Identity in 1 Corinthians 1­–4 and applies a similar identity-critical analysis to the rest of 1 Corinthians.1

This introduction provides an overview of the way I understand Paul’s identity-forming program in 1 Corinthians. It begins with a brief description of two scholars who address this topic in a manner somewhat different than the one undertaken here. Then it offers an introduction to a group of scholars referred to as “Beyond the New Perspective on Paul.” This study follows closely many of the findings within this group of scholars, and this overview provides clarity with regard to the type of reading that occurs in this monograph. Finally, it highlights many of the key issues in social-scientific criticism that are relevant to this study by reviewing a collection of essays by Still and Horrell, After the First Urban Christians.2 This collection rightly notes the seminal influence of Wayne Meeks on social-scientific analysis of Paul’s letters and provides an excellent dialogue partner for the chapters that follow.3

Two Recent Approaches to Paul and Identity Formation

Recent studies on Paul and identity formation have brought to the fore the centrality of social identity in Paul’s thought.4 However, many of those studies reflect an approach that minimizes either Paul’s Jewishness or the way he values the continuation of gentile identity “in Christ.” Two of these studies are discussed here as a point of contrast and comparison with the approach taken in this study.

A Former Jew

For instance, Love L. Sechrest argues that the Pauline Christ-movement was a racial group as understood within Second Temple Judaism. She provides a reading that follows the contours of the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) and suggests that Paul viewed those in Christ, both Jew and gentile, as a third race. Sechrest’s approach, however, is not the traditional third race perspective with its implicit anti-Judaism. The third race approach argued for in A Former Jew reveals Paul as one who continues to show affection for Judaism, sees ongoing interdependence between Jews and gentiles, and does not disparage the law. These three characteristics are often associated with the work of scholars that are part of the radical perspective on Paul.5 So, how does Sechrest come to such a conclusion concerning Paul and the formation of Christian identity? She starts by asking the question, “What if ‘race’ or ‘ethnicity’ meant something different to ancient Jews than white-male-dominated modern scholarship has appreciated?”6 In A Former Jew, Sechrest offers a wide-ranging study that argues that modern conceptions of race and ethnicity have been read into Paul, resulting in a skewed understanding concerning his approach to the formation of Christian identity.

Though Sechrest has provided a thoughtful study, I remain unconvinced that Paul viewed the Christ-movement as a third race. First, the primary passage in which Paul addresses the continuation of the circumcision and uncircumcision callings is 1 Cor 7:17–24, which Sechrest does not address. In these verses, Paul’s rule is that those “in Christ” are not to seek to change their ethnic identification once they begin following Christ; rather Paul’s vision is one of continuing “ecclesiological variegation.”7 Second, in Rom 11:13 and 15:27 Paul clearly refers to the Christ-followers in Rome as still “gentiles,” but Sechrest does not account for these verses in her third race dialectic. Third, her approach to apocalyptic is not detailed and assumes discontinuity with the pre-turning life, though J. C. Beker’s approach to apocalyptic, which allows for continuity of ethnic identity in Christ, is not considered.8 Fourth, the role of the eschatological pilgrimage texts (e.g., Zech 8:23; Isa 2:2–3; Tob 14:7) and the way they describe gentiles as coming with Jews, as gentiles, to worship God in Zion are not considered;9 rather, Sechrest contends that Jewish and gentile identity will be dissolved into one undifferentiated eschatological identity.10 Finally, William S. Campbell and Mark Nanos are overlooked, though both have argued persuasively against the reading of Paul presented in A Former Jew.11 Sechrest has written a useful work on Paul, though the continuing relevance of Jewish and gentile identity within the Christ-movement may be closer to Paul’s perspective, rather than the displacement of these by “an emergent, newly formed, Jewish-like racial group.”12

All of You Are One

Other scholars see Paul forming the Christ-movement as an ethnic identity. For example, Bruce Hansen, in All of You Are One, argues that the baptismal unity formula seen in Gal 3:28, 1 Cor 12:13, and Col 3:11 is Paul’s apprehension of a tradition that allows him to present his vision for social unity among his addressees—a unity in which their new identity “in Christ” may be described as a new ethnic identity formed around Israel redefined “in Christ” and their participation “in Christ.” The way in which previous identities continue is described as an amalgamation of previous ide...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Part 1: Paul’s Approach to the Formation of Social Identities
• Chapter 2: Paul and the Formation of Social Identities
• Chapter 3: Particularistic Approach to “in Christ” Social Identities
• Chapter 4: Paul’s Jewish Identity and his Gentile Mission
• Chapter 5: Continuation of the Corinthians’ Social Identities
• Part 2: Transformation and Re-contextualization of Social Identities
• Chapter 6: Influence of Roman Social Identity on Baptism
• Chapter 7: Transformation of Contested Ritual Space
• Chapter 8: Re-contextualization of Corinthian Eschatological Identity
• Chapter 9: Conclusion
• Bibliography