Being Subordinate Men

Paul's Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians

Author: Brian J. Robinson

Being Subordinate Men offers a gender critical examination of Paul’s use of gender and power in the argument of 1 Corinthians, showing that the apostle consistently undermines first-century Roman norms of masculinity.

Product Unavailable

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

Description

Being Subordinate Men offers a gender critical examination of Paul’s use of gender and power in the argument of 1 Corinthians. By elevating femininity and misperforming masculinity, Paul consistently undermines first century Roman norms of masculinity. Such norms of masculinity would have allowed some of the higher status men among the Corinthian believers to occupy positions of power that would give them control over lower status members of the community. Instead of supporting such a patriarchal model, Paul articulates a form of masculinity that would require these higher status men to abandon their positions of power and occupy positions that would put them on equal status with women and men whose bodies and identities forced them to the margins of society. Such a move subverts forms of toxic, or hegemonic, masculinity that give a select few men power over the bodies of others. Instead of a toxic masculinity, Paul commands the men in his audience to embody a failed, or subordinate, masculinity. This failed masculinity not only imitates Paul’s own subordinate masculinity, seen in his embrace of feminine imagery and his failure to live up to first century Roman norms of masculinity, but also supports Paul’s main reason for writing 1 Corinthians by confronting the factionalism that threatens to destroy the believing community. Paul’s vision for the believing community is one of equality that centers itself in imitation of the crucified body of Jesus, a body that demonstrates that equality, not domination, is the path to the kingdom of God.

Critic Reviews

“[T]he book will be valuable to a wide variety of scholars, regardless of whether their approach to biblical texts is confessional or not. . . . Robinson engages in a remarkable analysis of the complicit masculinity of three men who were roughly contemporaries of Paul: Flavius Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and Favorinus of Arelate. Particularly enlightening among them is the discussion of Favorinus, who rarely figures into New Testament scholarship in any capacity. . . . the present book. . . will be of interest to graduate students, scholars, and theological libraries.”

Religion and Gender
Paul's masculinity is often taken for granted as consistently authoritative and hierarchical. In this nuanced study, Brian Robinson explores different rhetorical valences and effects of ancient discourses on maleness, revealing a more textured array of options for interpretation of the Corinthian correspondence than a binary construction of gender affords. Readers interested in both the intersection of critical theory and biblical interpretation and in the resonances of Paul's letters with contemporary social issues and concerns will find much with which to dialog. -- Davina C. Lopez, Eckerd College
Arguably, Paul is the most fully-fleshed out man in the New Testament; as such, a book-length analysis of how Paul constructs and performs his masculinity is long overdue. Brian Robinson fills this need admirably. His erudition on ancient protocols of masculinity is impressive; his analysis of Paul’s performance of gender in 1 Corinthians is thoroughly informed by feminist and queer Pauline scholarship; and the Paul with which he presents us ultimately is both thought-provokingly unfamiliar and compellingly rendered. -- Stephen D. Moore, Edmund S. Janes Professor of New Testament Studies, The Theological School, Drew University
Brian Robinson’s Being Subordinate Men: Paul's Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians compares cultural notions of masculinity in the ancient world with Paul’s rhetoric in 1 Corinthians, and shows that Paul deliberately undermines ancient masculine ideals about crafting powerful public personas explicitly tied to the performance of masculinity. Robinson maintains that Paul repeatedly chooses to portray himself in modes that signal weakness and a subordinate status that embodies the way of Jesus. This is a prophetic book, ahead of its time and tailor-made for reading in the #Metoo moment. -- Love L. Sechrest, Associate Professor of New Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

About the Author

Brian J. Robinson teaches classes on religious studies and hellenistic Jewish and early Christianity literature at Azusa Pacific University and California Lutheran University.

More on this Book

Being Subordinate Men offers a gender critical examination of Paul's use of gender and power in the argument of 1 Corinthians. By elevating femininity and misperforming masculinity, Paul consistently undermines first century Roman norms of masculinity. Such norms of masculinity would have allowed some of the higher status men among the Corinthian believers to occupy positions of power that would give them control over lower status members of the community. Instead of supporting such a patriarchal model, Paul articulates a form of masculinity that would require these higher status men to abandon their positions of power and occupy positions that would put them on equal status with women and men whose bodies and identities forced them to the margins of society. Such a move subverts forms of toxic, or hegemonic, masculinity that give a select few men power over the bodies of others. Instead of a toxic masculinity, Paul commands the men in his audience to embody a failed, or subordinate, masculinity. This failed masculinity not only imitates Paul's own subordinate masculinity, seen in his embrace of feminine imagery and his failure to live up to first century Roman norms of masculinity, but also supports Paul's main reason for writing 1 Corinthians by confronting the factionalism that threatens to destroy the believing community. Paul's vision for the believing community is one of equality that centers itself in imitation of the crucified body of Jesus, a body that demonstrates that equality, not domination, is the path to the kingdom of God.