Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 41:2 (NA 1990)
Article: Theological And Ethical Responses To Religious Pluralism-1 Corinthians 8-10
Author: Bruce W. Winter

TynBul 41:2 (1990) p. 209

Theological And Ethical Responses To Religious Pluralism-1 Corinthians 8-101

Bruce W. Winter

Gentile conversion to Christianity in the first century meant a theological revolution-turning from the worship of ‘dumb idols’, 1 Cor. 12:2. It did not however extract converts from life in cities where religious pluralism was woven into the very fabric of every daily life. For example, meat was bought after being sacrificed to idols, ablutions were carried out in public baths in the presence of deities, and festivals and great occasions were celebrated in the city under religious patronage. As part of daily living Paul recognized that his converts needed ‘to have dealings with. . .idolaters’ (συναναμίγυσθαι... εἰδωλολάτραις), 1 Cor. 5:9–10. What were the appropriate Christian responses to the complexity of daily life which was presided over by Corinth’s deities?

To answer this question it is proposed I. to describe the religious pluralism of Roman Corinth which took for granted the legitimacy of all its ‘many gods and many lords’, II. to examine its impact on Jews living in the amidst of such pluralism to ascertain how adherents of the monotheistic religion from which Christianity sprang coped with the problems it posed, and to note Rabbinic advice on how to live in the midst of it as pious Jews, III. to assess the different reactions to religious pluralism by Corinthian Christians, IV. to outline Paul’s solutions to the related pastoral problems, and V. to evaluate that church’s theological and ethical responses to its world of religious pluralism.

TynBul 41:2 (1990) p. 210

I. Descriptions Of Religious Pluralism In Corinth2

The character of religious pluralism in this large Roman colony of approximately one hundred thousand inhabitants is found in three ancient Corinthian sources. The first is the archaeological evidence which enables us to grasp something of the number of temples and shrines in Corinth. A full account of them is to be found in Pausanias, a traveller to Corinth and other cities of Greece c. AD 170. His extensive literary work is not dissimilar to the modern day ‘Blue Guide’ to Greece except that the former’s primary concern was with the plethora of Corinth’s gods and goddesses.3 1 Corinthians also discusses the problem especially in chapters 8–10.

I. Corinthian Temple Sites <...

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