Unveiling Paul’s Epistemology: Reading 1 Corinthians in Critical Engagement with Modern Thought

Abstract

This dissertation presents a unified and coherent reading of First Corinthians through a close analysis of Paul’s apocalyptic epistemology. Critically, this argumentative unity is only visible once we have attended to the development of epistemology in the modern period and its positive and negative effects on Pauline interpretation. Having gained conceptual clarity on this matter, the thesis offers resolution to several apparent tensions in the reasoning of the letter, while putting forward a constructive account of Paul’s epistemology as a whole. This constructive account is worked out through an examination of Paul’s christological claims in 1 Corinthians, as well as close exegesis of three key sections of the letter: 1 Cor 1–4; 8:1–11:1; 12–14. Paul’s theological epistemology is grounded in the self-revelation of God in the one Lord Jesus Christ. It is the unity, continuity, and exclusivity of Christ’s story and person that most fully informs Paul’s theo-logical reasoning. In 1 Cor 1–4, Paul articulates recognition as the definitive form of knowledge. That is, knowledge is fundamentally an act of recognizing the superabundance of what God has done in Christ and in the life of the community. In 1 Cor 8:1–11:1, Paul’s argument rejects an abstract account of knowledge. Instead, he considers human cognition to be co-constitutive of reality and so he demands a heightened level of self-and-other-perception among the Corinthians. In 1 Cor 12–14, we see that Paul presses a unique ontology and practical ethics that presumes a unity of knowing and being as well as knowing and action. Ultimately, Paul expects the Corinthian believers to become a community maturing in rational and intelligible love. In sum, my exegesis confirms the theological integrity of 1 Corinthians, validates my use of concepts developed in the modern apocalyptic tradition, and establishes a constructive account of Paul’s epistemology.