Christ's Body in Corinth: The Politics of Metaphor

Yung Suk Kim takes up the language of"body" that infuses 1 Corinthians, Paul'smost complicated letter, and the letterthat provides us the most information,and poses the sharpest questions, aboutsocial realities in the early church.Kim argues against the view that inspeaking of the church as Christ'sbody Paul seeks to emphasize unityand the social boundary. Against theconventional rhetoric of the "bodypolitic" in Greco-Roman philosophy,Kim argues that Paul seeks ratherto nourish the vitality of a diversecommunity and to criticize the ideologyof a powerful in-group in Corinth, amessage of particular importance forcontemporary global Christianity.