Gendered Ideology and Power in 1 Corinthians

ABSTRACT

With the use of socio-rhetorical interpretation (SRI) as an interpretive analytics combined with a gender-critical hermeneutical optic, this article investigates the ‘power struggles’ inherent in the discourse of 1 Corinthians in an attempt to examine the ideology within Paul’s rhetoric and to investigate how Paul’s rhetoric functions ideologically to assert his power over the Corinthian Christian community. As a result of this investigation, this study argues that the discourse of 1 Corinthians is deeply entrenched in gendered ideological texture and tendentiously served to maintain and sustain hierarchical gendered relationships between men and women in the church at Corinth – relationships that mimicked the normative, androcentric, and kyriarchal power relations from the dominant Graeco-roman culture.

Keywords:

• 1 Corinthians
• discourse
• discursive practices
• gender
• ideology
• Paul the apostle
• performativity
• power