Publications

Publication details [#601]

Kim, Yung Suk. 2008. Christ’s body in Corinth: The politics of a metaphor. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Publication type
Book – monograph
Publication language
English
ISBN
ISBN 978 0 8006 6285 1

Abstract

In this book, the author studies the expression Body of Christ, as used by Paul the Apostle in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. In earlier theological research, the expression has been understood as a metaphor for the church as organism. The author shows how this metaphor has been used to exclude people, instead of to include them, in a Christian community. In her analysis, she makes use of the perspective of power conflicts. She suggests that possible causes of these conflicts lie in the disposition of elite members of the Corinthian church not to live in a Christic body, but to dominate others. In this way, Apostle Paul’s concern is to construct a community of “all”, but not at the cost of diversity. Interpreted like this, the solution offered by Pauls is very different solution from the one that the world provides.