PART 1 - PAUL: COMMUNITY-BUILDING INSTITUTIONALIZATION

Summary

The following study constitutes a general treatment of the nature of Pauline communities. The connection of these communities with the structures and values of Greco-Roman society will be considered. It will be necessary to explore early Christian attitudes to the outside world as well as the ethical stance adopted by communities at once separated from, and rooted in, the realities of that world. Ministry will be studied not only in terms of visible traces of leadership organization, but also with a view to discovering the often hidden social structures functioning in the exercise of authority in community life. Ritual forms will be investigated in the hope of gaining insight into the assertion and reaffirmation of communal identity. Beliefs, the key elements of the developing Christian identity, will be considered with an awareness of the ongoing dialectic between ideas and their social setting. The interrelationships between the various aspects of community life will be sought throughout the enquiry. The ambiguities and tensions experienced by a movement in its initial stages of community building will be highlighted.

This work is by no means intended to be a comprehensive investigation of Pauline Christianity. Many interesting and crucial questions having to do with the complexities of Paul's thought are here left to one side. Our field of vision is limited to what can be gleaned from the text about the life of members of Paul's communities – what they believed and what they did.