Publication details

Večeře Páně v Korintu : k archeologii sociálního konfliktu

Title in English The Lord's supper in Corinth : towards the archaeology of social conflict
Authors

PAPOUŠEK Dalibor

Year of publication 2006
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Religio : revue pro religionistiku
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Field Philosophy and religion
Keywords early Christianity; Corinth; Paul of Tarsus; sociology; archaeology; social conflict
Description The so-called "new consensus", achieved at the turn of the 1970's and the 1980's by a group of sociologically inlined New Testament scholars (A. Malherbe, G. Theissen, W. A. Meeks, J. Murphy-O'Connor), shifted the hitherto socio-historical research of earliest Christianity to a new level. Although their conclusions differed in details, they all stated that early Christian communities were not homogenously proletarian, but socially stratified. Their argumentation was built mainly on new analyses of Paul's letters, providing unique evidence of social tensions and differences among early Christians. The article reconsiders the recent discussion provoked by Justin J. Meggitt's book Paul, Poverty and Survival (1998), which questioned the "new consensus" and reasserted the theory of social homogeneity and equal mutualism within the early Christian churches. The main attention is focused on the conflict over the Lord's Supper in Corinth (1 Cor. 11:17-34) and its analysis from an archaeological perspective (J. Murphy-O'Connor, D. G. Horrell). Archaeological suggestions are considered as an important contribution which can deepen the current discussions on social stratification of the Corinthian church and support the "new consensus" with a larger body of evidence. The author stresses the complementary character of archaeological and textual methods used in the socio-historical research of early Christian life.

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