1 Corinthians
in Abingdon New Testament Commentaries
Pages
244 pages
Publisher
Abingdon Press
Published
1998
ISBN-13
9780687058389
This commentary highlights both the socio-political context of 1 Corinthians and the clash of significantly different religious viewpoints represented by Paul and the congregation he had founded in Corinth. In particular, Richard Horsley shows that this letter provides a window through which one may view the tension between the Corinthians' interest in cultivating individual spirituality and the apostle's concern for building up a social-religious community devoted to the common advantage, for the flourishing both of personal dignity and a humanizing solidarity.
Reviews
MatthewD
August 24, 2020
August 24, 2020
I regret that to this day I have no yet finished reading this work. I have only read 50% (the first half - 1 Corinthians chapter 1-6). However, since there are only a few reviews of this commentary, I felt the need to give it the recognition it deserves. It is in the Top 3 of the best mid-level commentaries on 1 Corinthians (1-Oropeza, 2-Thiselton Shorter, 3-Horsley). Any commentary that distances itself fro mainstream evangelical bias that is forced back onto the text (when inappropriate to do so), gets a lot of respect from me. Horlsey recognizes the fact that the Corinthians were “former” (some still were) polytheists. How many white-American churches have former polytheists in their congregation? Almost none! Which means that we need to stop reading 1 Corinthians from the perspective of modern white-Evangelicalism, and start reading the text exegetically. Horsley actually respects the original historical context of 1 Corinthians, and brings out a number of fantastic insights in his commentary. This is mandatory reading for your 1 Corinthians studies!