Women in Their Place: Paul and the Corinthian Discourse of Gender and Sanctuary Space

Women in their Place examines 1 Corinthians 11-14 within a larger context of gender models and sanctuary spaces by relating exegesis to space, gender and discourse theories, to comparative archaeological and historical material, and to ancient Greek, Roman and Jewish cultural and cultic practices. It establishes a distinction between private, public and sacred/sanctuary space and argues that, in much of 1 Corinthians, Paul is concerned with the marking of firm boundaries around the sanctuary space established by rituals in the ekklesia, which would effectively engender the church as a male space.

The statements concerned with women's ritual roles and ritual clothing reflect ancient worldviews in which gender was cosmically founded. Jorunn Økland provides an informed and illuminating examination of what Paul can tell us about divisions between sanctuary and other space, men and women, and ideas of private and public.