Defending Shame: Its Formative Power in Paul's Letters

2020 Center for Biblical Studies Book Award (New Testament)

Our culture often views shame in a negative light. However, Paul's use of shame, when properly understood and applied, has much to teach the contemporary church. Filling a lacuna in Pauline scholarship, this book shows how Paul uses shame to admonish and to transform the minds of his readers into the mind of Christ. The author examines Paul's use of shame for moral formation within his Jewish and Greco-Roman context, compares and contrasts Paul's use of shame with other cultural voices, and offers a corrective understanding for today's church. Foreword by Luke Timothy Johnson.

Te-Li Lau (PhD, Emory University) is associate professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, where he has taught for over ten years. He is also the author of The Politics of Peace: Ephesians, Dio Chrysostom, and the Confucian Four Books.