The Social Ethos of the Corinthian Correspondence: Interests and Ideology from 1 Corinthians to 1 Clement (Studies of the New Testament and Its World)

The Social Ethos of the Corinthian Correspondence: Interests and Ideology from 1 Corinthians to 1 Clement Studies of the New Testament and Its World Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1996. Pp. xvi + 395, Cloth, $54.95, ISBN 0567085287. John C. Hurd Trinity College Toronto, ON Canada M5S 1H8 This book is a revision of the author's Ph.D. thesis submitted to Cambridge University in 1993. As such it is thorough, focused, and has an excellent bibliography. Horrell seeks to apply the sociological insights of a single sociologist (Anthony Giddens, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; since 1997 director of the London School of Economics) to a single church as known through its correspondence in the first century. He begins with an interesting and valuable overview of previous sociological treatments of NT texts. Then (in ch. 2), with Giddens, he rejects both the use of "models" and the attempt to find "laws" of social behavior. Instead he finds Gidden's "structuration theory" attractive. Thus he "conceives of Pauline Christianity as a symbolic order comprising rules and resources which are embodied in the lives of particular communities and which are taken up, reproduced and transformed over time" (p. 281). He notes that adding the dimension of time to the sociological approach effectively removes the distinction between sociology and history. With his theoretical stance explicated, he moves on (in ch. 3) to consider the Corinthian community. He describes briefly the social structure of Roman society with particular attention to Corinth. He finds confirmation for the resulting picture in texts taken from 1 Corinthians: he identifies both socially powerful persons and socially weak persons in the Corinthian congregation. Their manner of celebrating the Lord's Supper reveals social stratification (1 Cor 11:17-33). It was the strong rich who claimed the right to eat "idol meat" and the weak poor who condemned and feared it (1 Corinthians 8-10). The rich brought suits in secular law courts against fellow Christians (1 Cor 6:1-8). There were congregational divisions (1 Corinthians 1-4), probably connected with socially prominent households. Next (ch. 4) Horrell examines Paul's response to the Corinthian situation, that is, 1 Corinthians. He rejects the notion that Paul's attitude should be characterized as "love-patriarchalism," that is, support for the status quo. [Full Review]