'Prisoner of Christ': What did this phrase mean to Paul and other early Christians, and what might it mean today?
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sci
Abstract
The apostle Paul suffered imprisonment on multiple occasions, at the hands (according to various accounts) of local authorities, Roman officials, client kings, and even the Emperor; however, he identifies himself only as a prisoner of Christ. This enigmatic phrase had a significant afterlife in early Christian literature; it is ascribed to Paul in various non-canonical texts such as 3 Corinthians 3:1, 35; 1 Clement 5:6; and Chrysostom, Hom. Phil. 2 and 10; other 'prisoners of Christ' appear in Ignatius (Rom. 1:5; Tars. 1:1); and Eusebius (Hist. eccl. 5:12). Moreover, numerous important early Christian texts were written in, or narrate, situations of imprisonment. Yet there is no monograph-length study that explores the trajectory of the concept 'prisoner of Christ', and its associated narratives, among early Christians. Nor is there a thematic analysis of the formative experience of imprisonment for early Christians, and the meanings ascribed to these experiences.
My project will ask the following three key questions: What did Paul seek to convey with 'prisoner of Christ', in the context of his carceral experiences? How did 'prisoner of Christ' develop as a concept in the first three centuries AD? And finally, what are the ethical implications of understanding oneself as a 'prisoner of Christ'?
Studies of Paul's prison letters frequently dismiss the possibility that imprisonment had 'any concrete effect' on his work (Wansink, 1996: 14). The small but growing body of scholarship redressing this neglect includes Schellenberg, 2021; Standhartinger, 2013; Wansink, 1996; and Rapske, 1994. However, the pregnant phrase 'prisoner of Christ' has been overlooked; several recent studies of Paul's life and writing ignore the phrase entirely (including Schnelle, 2014; Wolter, 2015; Barclay, 2015). The few existing studies (Wansink [ch.4], 1996; Witetschek, 2015; Jung, 2008) demonstrate its rhetorical impact, its military connotations, and its self-mythologising tendencies. Nonetheless, 'prisoner of Christ' was more than simply a Pauline inverse boast; it was a key concept in the formation of early Christian identity. Without a detailed exploration of this concept, we cannot fully appreciate Paul's own understanding of his incarceration or the role of imprisonment in shaping early Christianity.
I will use a historical and intertextual methodology to explore imprisonment in its historical-social context, and, through the lens of the phrase 'prisoner of Christ', thematically examine incarceration's role in early Christian texts up to the end of the third century. However, I will go beyond the typical scope of historical biblical projects in reflecting on the direct ethical implications of this study for the legitimacy of carceral practices within modern Christian thought and British society.
Western penal traditions are deeply rooted in biblical interpretation (Ignatieff, 1979; Graber, 2011). As Campbell (2018) has demonstrated, Pauline theology - especially concepts of sin and retribution - has been seminal to the development of modern penal practice and reform. However, Paul's own identity as a victim of punitive state incarceration - from which position some of this theology was written - has been overlooked in these debates, which privilege a disembodied interpretation of his theological output over his embodied experience. This experience, much as that of modern incarceration, intersects in significant ways with the experience of social inequality based on ethnicity, social status, slavery, and gender. My project aims to renew the ongoing conversation between texts, theology and prison practices by foregrounding the imprisonable bodies of Paul and his contemporaries.
My project is therefore original, both for its contribution to studies of Paul, the New Testament and early Christianity, and for its potential ethical applications to our own modern world.
My project will ask the following three key questions: What did Paul seek to convey with 'prisoner of Christ', in the context of his carceral experiences? How did 'prisoner of Christ' develop as a concept in the first three centuries AD? And finally, what are the ethical implications of understanding oneself as a 'prisoner of Christ'?
Studies of Paul's prison letters frequently dismiss the possibility that imprisonment had 'any concrete effect' on his work (Wansink, 1996: 14). The small but growing body of scholarship redressing this neglect includes Schellenberg, 2021; Standhartinger, 2013; Wansink, 1996; and Rapske, 1994. However, the pregnant phrase 'prisoner of Christ' has been overlooked; several recent studies of Paul's life and writing ignore the phrase entirely (including Schnelle, 2014; Wolter, 2015; Barclay, 2015). The few existing studies (Wansink [ch.4], 1996; Witetschek, 2015; Jung, 2008) demonstrate its rhetorical impact, its military connotations, and its self-mythologising tendencies. Nonetheless, 'prisoner of Christ' was more than simply a Pauline inverse boast; it was a key concept in the formation of early Christian identity. Without a detailed exploration of this concept, we cannot fully appreciate Paul's own understanding of his incarceration or the role of imprisonment in shaping early Christianity.
I will use a historical and intertextual methodology to explore imprisonment in its historical-social context, and, through the lens of the phrase 'prisoner of Christ', thematically examine incarceration's role in early Christian texts up to the end of the third century. However, I will go beyond the typical scope of historical biblical projects in reflecting on the direct ethical implications of this study for the legitimacy of carceral practices within modern Christian thought and British society.
Western penal traditions are deeply rooted in biblical interpretation (Ignatieff, 1979; Graber, 2011). As Campbell (2018) has demonstrated, Pauline theology - especially concepts of sin and retribution - has been seminal to the development of modern penal practice and reform. However, Paul's own identity as a victim of punitive state incarceration - from which position some of this theology was written - has been overlooked in these debates, which privilege a disembodied interpretation of his theological output over his embodied experience. This experience, much as that of modern incarceration, intersects in significant ways with the experience of social inequality based on ethnicity, social status, slavery, and gender. My project aims to renew the ongoing conversation between texts, theology and prison practices by foregrounding the imprisonable bodies of Paul and his contemporaries.
My project is therefore original, both for its contribution to studies of Paul, the New Testament and early Christianity, and for its potential ethical applications to our own modern world.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Rebecca Reiss (Student) |