Walking the Path of Service

Slavery is a grisly reality, one that persists in some forms even to the present day. The presence of language that speaks positively of this inhumane institution stands as embarrassment to today's readers of the New Testament. Nonetheless, St. Paul uses slavery as a metaphor to describe how Christians ought to conduct themselves towards others. Far from denigrating the human condition, the Apostle uses this imagery to its fullest effect, showing how Christians, by serving each other as slaves, fulfill God's plan for humankind in the Church and live as worthy images of Christ Jesus, the image of God.



This dissertation examines the only two passages in the Pauline corpus in which the language of a divine word, the moral walk, and the Horizontal slavery metaphor--one that describes how human beings serve each other--appears: Gal 5,13-18 and 2Cor 4,1-6. After situating each passage in its historical and literary contexts, this study comments on each passage verse by verse and then discusses the significant theological themes that the periscopes educe. Lastly, the present volume concludes with a synthesis that takes the findings of the exegesis of both passages and draws conclusions about how Paul uses the slavery metaphor to situate human beings in relation to the Triune God Father, Son, and Spirit as members of the Church.