The Therapy of the Christian Body: A Theological Exposition of Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, Volume 2 - Hardcover

by Brian Brock (Author), Bernd Wannenwetsch (Author), Douglas a. Campbell (Foreword by)

The troubles and ills of the church today can only be understood and healed when Christians begin to face up to their hidden alliances with the Corinthians of the first century and embrace both the Apostle's diagnosis and therapy offered in the epistle. This is the challenge of The Malady and Therapy of the Christian Body, a two-volume commentary by two leading theologians that presents the fruits of a reading strategy that deliberately reflects ecclesial commitment by "reading the Apostle over against ourselves." Sharing their discoveries about the way Paul deals with questions of factionalism, sexuality, legal conflict, idolatry, dress codes, and eating habits, Brock and Wannenwetsch demonstrate how neither the malady nor the therapy that Paul describes conforms to dominant analyses of the malaise of the contemporary church, which tend to be as "organ centered" as modern medicine. The authors describe the way the Apostle engages in "feeling-into" the organic whole of the body in order to detect blockages to the healthy flow of powers by redirecting their vision to how God is working among them toward the "building up" of the Christian body. The book breaks new ground in crossing the traditional disciplinary boundaries between biblical studies, systematic theology, and theological ethics.

Author Biography

Brian Brock is Professor of Moral and Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen. He has published on the role of Scripture in Christian ethics (Singing the Ethos of God, 2007), the ethics of technological development (Christian Ethics in a Technological Age, 2010), the theology of disability (Disability in the Christian Tradition, 2012), and most recently, Captive to Christ, Open to the World: On Doing Christian Ethics in Public (2014).



Bernd Wannenwetsch was Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at the University of Oxford, Chair in Theological Ethics at the University of Aberdeen and the president of the Society for Study of Christian Ethics. He is now Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at the Freie Theologische Hochschule Giessen. His publications include Political Worship, Guter schneller Tod?, and Verlangen.