V. Henry T. Nguyen explores the social dynamics of Christian identity in the apostle Paul´s second letter to the Corinthians. In order to grasp how identity affected social relations in the world of the New Testament, he examines the ancient concept of persona, which has been largely ignored by New Testament scholars and classicists, and the perceptions of social identity and persona by Epictetus and Valerius Maximus. After identifying a large preoccupation with the superficial features of identity in the Graeco-Roman world, the author considers 2 Corinthians to show Paul´s reaction against the Corinthian Christians´ adoption of the conventional values of identity that were prevalent in Corinth. The author shows that in order to combat the misconception of Christian identity in the Corinthian church, Paul subverted the Corinthians´ conventional values by promoting a Christ-like identity.weiterlesen