Abstract
Attention to honor discourse leads the reader to particularly salient features of Paul's strategy for advancing the Corinthian believers' socialization into the norms and values of the Christian culture. Many of the individual problems which Paul addresses stem from the more basic issue of the believers' continued allegiance to their primary socialization. The believers still seek to establish their honor, and to evaluate the honor of others, in terms of external appearance, social and spiritual precedence, and successful competition. Paul motivates them to distance themselves from their former values, establishes new criteria for claiming honor in terms of the world-construction of the group, and replaces competition within the group with cooperation and mutuality. He posits the true "court of reputation" to consist of God, Christ, Paul's apostolic team, the supra-local church, and the local Christian community. Ascriptions of honor and dishonor before this court should alone guide the believers in their desire for honor and in their estimation of the value of each individual Christian. Perhaps more than any other Pauline epistle, the Corinthian letters address the basic issue of what constitutes honor for the Christian and within the Christian community.
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