The Theology of the First Letter to the Corinthians

Examines the theological orientation of 1 Corinthians, and Paul's contribution as theologian and teacher.

Victor Paul Furnish (Author)

9780521358071, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 June 1999

188 pages
21.5 x 13.9 x 1 cm, 0.23 kg

"...all students - teaching and preaching pastors especially - will benefit from reading attentively this well-wrought work of historically informed theological exegesis." Pro Ecclesia

This study shows that the common view of 1 Corinthians as mainly about 'ethics' and therefore of little importance for 'theology' needs correcting. Furnish argues that 1 Corinthians is an even better place to take the apostle's theological pulse than the allegedly 'more theological' letters to the Galatians and Romans, because here it is especially evident how his thinking about the gospel took place within the crucible of his missionary and pastoral labours. Paul's complex theological legacy is not a systematic theology or even the basis for constructing a theological system. However, we come close to the heart of Paul's legacy in his clear-sighted identification of the gospel with the saving power of God's love as disclosed in Christ, and his insistence that those who are called to belong to Christ are thereby summoned to be agents of God's love wherever in the world they have received that call.

Editor's preface
Preface
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Knowing God, belonging to Christ
3. Belonging to Christ in an unbelieving society
4. Belonging to Christ in a believing community
5. Hoping in God, the 'all in all'
6. The significance of 1 Corinthians for Christian thought
Select bibliography
Index of references
Index of names
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]