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  • From: Tim Harris <tim.harris AT stmatts.asn.au>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Dignitas and Pauline social values
  • Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 13:35:45 +1030

At 02:05 PM 27/03/02 -0500, you wrote:
Is there any relationship between your topic and the idea of honor and shame?  There's research being done into honor and shame and the world of the Bible.  I don't have any references handy, but I've seen them while searching in ATLA .

Stephen Pegler   AC 75-77
Ph.D. Candidate New Testament
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Bannockburn, IL

It is certainly related to honor and shame - in fact, they are one pair of a number of polarised attributes, each heavily value laden as indicators of social status and influence: honor and shame, strength and weakness, humiliation and glorification and so on. A number of recent studies (eg. Christopher Forbes, ‘Comparison, Self-Praise and Irony: Paul’s Boasting and the Conventions of Hellenistic Rhetoric’, NTS 32, 1986, 1-30) have demonstrated how Paul recognised and employed various status conventions in an ironical fashion ie. boasting (if pressed) of all the wrong sorts of things. My contention is that this reversal of values arises directly from Paul's perception of the gospel and the cross in particular (the appearance of being weak, but actually powerful). I would suggest that this is more than parody: it is actually subversive of Graeco-Roman social order. This may well account (in part) for the tension Paul experienced with influential members of the Corinthian church communities - his refusal to 'play the game' in comparison to the well established rhetorical conventions employed by the hyper-apostles was not only a personal preference. It was exemplary of the gospel value system exemplified in Christ (2 Cor. 10:1-2) and enjoined upon all believers. The socially scandalous behaviour of some in regard to rejection of status conventions reflected by association upon the movement as a whole. Paul appears to be socially ambiguous in this regard, at times cautioning against shameful conduct, at other times boasting in it. Concern in the former situations is for the reputation of churches. The latter appear more to be regarded as a demonstration of the gospel itself, including in the manner and conduct of his own ministry.

There would be value in making a study of the lifestyle and social ramifications consequent upon conversion by both the popular philosophers and the Christian apologists. Stoics to some extent, and certainly Cynics, called for deliberate demonstrations in various ways (especially dress, demeanor and attitude to those of high rank or influence) to make a social statement of one's new allegiance. I am aware of a number of studies that do touch on this, as well as some of the classic studies of conversion in the ancient world. What I am wondering is the extent to which Paul may have put pressure on influential believers to adopt an alternative and potentially subversive social value system. There is useful material that should be followed up in Ramsay MacMullen's Enemies of the Roman order : treason, unrest, and alienation in the Empire, Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1967.

Thank you to all those who responded to my earlier posting and for bringing to my attention a couple of recent works I had been unaware of. It is certainly true that (despite popular generalisations) there was no static monochrome outlook throughout the Graeco-Roman world. There are significant variations between Rome and the provinces (particularly in the East), between Roman and Hellenist, public authorities and philosophers,  republican romantics and the socially aware pragmatists and so on. There are a number of terms that come close to more popular notions of humility that are close to Christian aspects in their condemnation of arrogance and excess, and especially hubris (crossing a boundary into unwarranted claims: e.g. the slave who reminds the general during his Triumph that "remember, you are a mortal"). The Appendix "The Latin and Greek Lexicon of Honour" in Lendon, Empire of Honour, together with copious references to epigraphic evidence in provincial contexts was just what I was after.

For those interested in this area, there was another book I came across in my search, Kathryn Lomas, Rome and the Western Greeks 350 BC - AD 200: Conquest and acculturation in southern Italy, London and New York, Routledge: 1993, with a helpful chapter on urban society, acculturation and civic identity.

Tim Harris
Doctoral candidate
Flinders University,
South Australia


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