Life giving resources. Faithfully delivered.
FREE delivery on orders over £10
Serving over 2 million Christians in the UK
with Bibles, Books and Church Supplies
Our Buy-Now-Pay-Later accounts used
by over 4,000 UK Churches & Schools
Excellent 4.8 out of 5

Trustpilot

You now have 0 of this item in your basket

Paul, The Fool of Christ

A Study of 1 Corinthians 1-4 in the Comic-philosophic Tradition [Paperback]

by L.L. Welborn

Author
L.L. Welborn
Book Format
paperback
Publisher
Continuum
Published
December 2005

Read full description

Click to expand

Today's Price

£69.22

Free UK Delivery

Available - Usually dispatched within 4 days

Buying for a school or church? Upgrade to a FREE Eden Advance Account

Enter the product quantity

Paul, The Fool of Christ

Today's Price £69.22

Frequently Bought Together

Paul, The Fool of Christ

by L.L. Welborn

Paperback

The First Paul

by John Dominic Crossan +1

Paperback

Add both to basket for £78.50 and save £1.49

Product Description

Welborn argues that Paul's acceptance of the role of a 'fool', and his evaluation of the message of the cross as 'foolishness', are best understood against the background of the popular theatre and the fool's role in the mime. Welborn's investigation demonstrates that the term 'folly' (moria) was generally understood as a designation of the attitude and behaviour of a particular social type - the lower class buffoon. As a source of amusement, these lower class types were widely represented on the stage in the vulgar and realistic comedy known as the mime. Paul's acceptance of the role of the fool mirrors the strategy of a number of intellectuals in the early Empire who exploited the paradoxical freedom that the role permitted for the utterance of a dangerous truth. Welborn locates Paul's exposition of the 'folly' of the message about the cross in a submerged intellectual tradition that connects Cynic philosophy, satire, and the mime. In this tradition, the world is viewed from the perspective of the poor, the dishonoured, and the outsiders. The hero of this tradition is the 'wise fool,' who, in grotesque disguise, is allowed to utter critical truths about authority.;The book demonstrates that Paul participates fully in this tradition in his discourse about the folly of the word of the cross. The major components of Paul's argument in "1 Corinthians 1-4" find their closest analogies in the tradition that valorizes Socrates, Aesop, and the mimic fool.