Paul's Message of the Cross as Body Language (Paperback)

Wenhua Shi

ISBN 10: 3161497066 / ISBN 13: 9783161497063

Published by Mohr Siebeck, 2008

About this Item

Paperback. Die Streitigkeiten in Korinth zeigen, dass sich der Apostel Paulus intensiv mit den Kritikern und Gegnern der Kirche auseinandersetzte. Auf die Situation in der Kirche reagierte er mit der 'Botschaft vom Kreuz', die Wenhua Shi im Kontext der griechisch-roemischen Gesellschaft untersucht. Paulus argumentiert, dass paradoxerweise gerade im gekreuzigten Christus, der eigentlich als ein Bild von Schwaeche wahrgenommen wurde, die goettliche Macht und Weisheit zum Vorschein kam. Dabei benutzte Paulus keine normale Sprache, sondern eine lebhafte und mitreissende 'Koerpersprache', die er mittels den Bildern von der Kreuzigung, Rhetorik und Peristase zum Ausdruck brachte. Damit unternahm Paulus eine drastische Umkehrung der griechisch-roemischen sozialen Gesinnung. Crucifixion as a most horrible form of capital punishment in the Greco-Roman world was symbolic of extreme cruelty. Paul's 'message of the cross' however, turned the social ethos of his time up side down, in subtle but powerful 'body language', to show it was precisely in the apparent weakness of the crucified Christ that the Divine power was demonstrated. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9783161497063

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Paul's Message of the Cross as Body Language (Paperback)
• Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3161497066
• ISBN 13: 9783161497063
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

The heated controversies in Paul's Corinthian church are very complex and complicated. They are therefore opened to different approaches and interpretations, and could be studied from various perspectives. Wenhua Shi attempts to examine Paul's 'message of the cross' in the context of the Greco-Roman society, especially its firmly established and jealously guarded social ethos. The focus is on three major subjects, crucifixion, rhetoric and peristasis (catalogue of hardship and suffering). What is new in this study is obviously not these three subjects per se, but the linking of the three subjects together by 'body language' in an innovative manner, by setting the relevant Corinthian text against its respective historico-social contexts. Moreover, while it is already common knowledge that Paul's message of the cross and his manner of proclamation went against the Greco-Roman ethos of his time, few have put it so strongly and consistently, as Wenhua Shi does, that it was the apostle's conscious intention to invert the current ethos in 'body language' with his entire modus operandi . Moreover, the author can also show the vital importance of putting the biblical text against its context, so that the theological and the historico-social could be kept in a necessary balance.

About the Author

Wenhua Shi, Born 1968; Bachelor of Theology at Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, China; 2001 Master of Theology at Trinity Theological College, Singapore; 2008 PhD in New Testament at Durham University, England.