RT Article
T1 Was Paul An Advocate for "Merging" Multiple Social Identities?: Reading 1 Corinthians
JF Neotestamentica
VO 59
IS 1
SP 137
OP 156
A1 Cornelius, Elma M.
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1946031739
AB Williams and Kok (2024, 3) remark that becoming a Christian was challenging to the earliest Christians as far as their social identities were concerned. This is likewise evident from Cornelius’s (2024a, 1-22) interpretation of 1 Corinthians, in which she discusses the multiple social identities of the Corinthians and the problem of how to balance and integrate these natural, ethnic and cultural, familial, professional, religious, and spiritual identities. Paul advises on these concerns among the Corinthians by saying "remain as you are" (1 Corinthians 7:17, 20, 24, 26). This is a clear exhortation to the Corinthian Christians not to alter their social identities, but to remain in the identities they had when God called them. Williams and Kok (2024, 5) claim that further investigation is needed on how Christians might have dealt with identities in ways that may be reminiscent of intersection, dominance, merger, or compartmentalisation. Kok (2014, 9) describes Paul’s approach as fitting the merger paradigm. The focus of this article, then, is on Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians to "remain as you are" (1 Corinthians 7:17, 20, 24, 26) with a view on determining whether Paul was an advocate for "merging" social identities. It is concluded that Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians seems to communicate more than merely merging, but also embracing and integrating multiple social identities, resulting in an inclusive and diverse social identity. Paul rather advocates a primary, spiritual identity with the merging of social group identities around this core identity, being infiltrated by this primary social identity.
DO 10.1353/neo.2025.a977032