Money, Meals, and Honour: the Economic and Honorific Organization of the Corinthian Ekklēsia
Money, Meals, and Honour: The Economic and Honorific Organization of the Corinthian Ekklēsia By Richard Last A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of philosophy Department for the Study of Religion University of Toronto © Copyright by Richard Last 2013 Abstract Money, Meals, and Honour: The Economic and Honorific Organization of the Corinthian Ekklēsia Richard Last Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Department for the Study of Religion University of Toronto In standard portrayals of Paul’s Corinthian ekklēsia, the Christ-group is said to have existed without the level of economic and honorific organization we know to have been rather generalized in Greco-Roman associations: it did not collect subscription fees, failed to appoint or elect temporary officers, and neglected presentation of formal honorific prizes to its service- providers (e.g., crowns, proclamations, honorific inscriptions). In contrast to ancient associations, the ekklēsia, many scholars presently maintain with very little disagreement, had “no real organization” (Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, 298), and its members shared a “close, undifferentiated mode of social relationship” (Meeks, First Urban, 88) that is often described as ecclesiastical egalitarianism. This dissertation offers a different perspective by setting the practices of the Corinthian Christ-group alongside practices that are much more fully known from Greco-Roman associations, and asks whether the structural features (economic and honorific) we know to have been common in Greco-Roman associations might also be evidenced in the Corinthian Christ- group. My argument is that the ekklēsia was a structurally sophisticated group equipped with a common fund and a schedule for subscription fees, a “flat hierarchy” of elected temporary officers, and competition among members to perform services that would be reciprocated with crowns and other forms of formal commendation.
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