All citizens of Christ : : a cosmopolitan reading of unity and diversity in Paul's letters / / by Jeehei Park.

• Superior document: Biblical interpretation series ; Volume 201
• VerfasserIn: Park, Jeehei,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Biblical interpretation series ; Volume 201.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (184 pages)

This work is both a critical response to the abuse and misuse of Paul’s words on unity and a proposal to read them as a way to care about “others.”

In this work, Jeehei Park proposes Greek and Roman cosmopolitanism as a constructive category through which to navigate a reading of human diversity and communal unity in Paul’s letters. Park takes a thorough look at the cosmopolitan ideas of Diogenes of Sinope, Philo, Plutarch, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius to establish Paul as an interlocutor who critically participated in the discourse of cosmopolitanism. Park characterizes Paul’s understanding of unity with the distinctive phrase “heterogeneous unity,” in which human differences are respected and embraced rather than being universalized or homogenized. This book offers a novel analysis of Paul’s rhetoric about citizenship in Philippians and its adoption of Greek and Roman cosmopolitanism as an interpretive contour.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- 1 Beyond Universalism and Particularism -- 2 Why Cosmopolitanism? -- 3 Becoming a Citizen -- Chapter 2 Defining Κοσμοπολίτης -- 1 Life as a Voluntary Exile: Diogenes of Sinope's Cosmopolitanism -- 2 Nomos-abiding Citizens: Philo of Alexandria's Cosmopolitanism -- 3 Citizens of the Same Cosmos: Plutarch's Cosmopolitanism -- 4 Kin of God: Epictetus's Cosmopolitanism -- 5 Parts of the Whole: Marcus Aurelius's Cosmopolitanism -- 6 Conclusion -- Chapter 3 Citizens of Christ -- 1 Philippians 1:27-30: Living as Citizens of Christ -- 1.1 Πολιτεύομαι -- 1.2 A 'Gospel' Regime as a Cosmopolitan Community -- 1.3 Unity as a Cosmopolitan Action -- 2 Philippians 3:17-21: Heavenly Πολίτευμα -- 2.1 Πολίτευμα -- 2.2 The Cosmopolitan Body as the Ekklēsia -- 2.3 The Body of Citizenship in Heaven -- 3 Conclusion -- Chapter 4 Equal, Thus United -- 1 1 Corinthians 12:12-14: Many, Baptized into One Body -- 1.1 Many and One through Baptism -- 1.2 The Body of Christ as a Πολίτευμα -- 1.3 Care for the Whole Body -- 2 Galatians 3:26-29: One in Christ, Neither Jew Nor Greek -- 2.1 Cosmopolitan Unity in Christ -- 2.2 Kinship through Baptism -- 2.3 What to Invalidate? -- 3 Conclusion -- Chapter 5 Heterogeneous, Yet United -- 1 Romans 10:12-13: The Same Lord of All -- 1.1 Rom 9-11 and Paul's Euangelion -- 1.2 No Distinction in …? -- 1.3 United in the Same Lord -- 2 Romans 12:3-5, 9-13: One Body, Many Members -- 2.1 Paraenesis and Euangelion -- 2.2 One Body and Different Parts -- 2.3 Cosmopolitan Love -- 3 Conclusion -- Chapter 6 Conclusion -- 1 Cosmopolitan Ecclesiology -- 2 Continuing Cosmopolitan Unity -- 3 Cosmopolitanism and Beyond -- Bibliography -- Ancient Sources -- Modern Sources -- Index of Ancient Sources -- Index of Modern Authors.