Books by Kai-Hsuan Chang
校園書房出版社, 2023
Apocalyptic Paul: Paul's Theology and the Transformative Christ Event
The Library of New Testament Studies (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark), 2021
This study engages in the longstanding scholarly debate concerning the development of Paul’s resu... more This study engages in the longstanding scholarly debate concerning the development of Paul’s resurrection theology, by investigating the correlation between his bodily experiences and his diverse articulations about resurrection. Drawing on insights from cognitive linguistics, I consider Paul’s ideas about resurrection as fundamentally grounded in recurrent patterns of bodily experience and argue that the bodily experience of some religious activities in Paul’s time—death rites, spirit possession, and baptism—contributed to the formation and development of his resurrection theology.
Specifically, this book demonstrates that developments in Paul’s ideas about “bodily transformation at resurrection” —reflected in 1 Corinthians 15—resulted from a change in the experiential patterns on which his new idea is constructed (rather than “transformation during heavenly ascent” as seen in Jewish traditions of resurrection). I identify this radical development in experiential patterns by applying cognitive linguistic tools to two considerations: (1) whether Paul had contextual reasons to generate his innovation in 1 Corinthians 15, and (2) whether Paul’s innovation recurred or had continual effects in Christian groups. In so doing, I show that Paul’s innovation directly addressed a contextual issue of death rites in Corinth and exerted a continuing effect on Paul’s later ideas of transformation, spirit possession, and baptism.
Thus, instead of considering theological ideas as emerging solely from intellectual activity necessarily indebted to existing ideas in Paul’s cultural milieu, this study offers a rigorous and testable methodology to argue that bodily experience contributed significantly to his thought-development.
Articles by Kai-Hsuan Chang
漢語基督教學術論評 , 2023
In this article, following contemporary literary critics, I analyze the macrostructure of Matthew... more In this article, following contemporary literary critics, I analyze the macrostructure of Matthew’s Gospel from a narrative/plot perspective and explore the narrative function of the five major speeches in the macrostructure. In so doing, I propose a new solution to the longstanding debate on the macrostructure of Matthew—a solution that can take into account the two most treated structural formulae. As will be introduced, since previous scholarship that applied the first formula καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς to structural analysis failed to recognize the narrative nature of Matthew, many scholars sought to apply narrative criticism and as a result, the second formula απὸ τότε ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς received considerable attention using such an approach. However, although scholars applying narrative criticism rightly treated the five major speeches of Jesus as embedded in the plot, many of them did not fully explore the narrative function of these speeches and consequently neglected a crucial turning point of the story. Thus, first building upon the emphasis of previous narrative approaches on the theme of “salvation history,” I argue in this article that the formation of a community of disciples is one of the major axes of Matthew’s plot and, as such, 9:36–10:1 is one of Matthew’s major turning points. Second, by using reader-response criticism to explore the significant effect of the five major speeches on the “implied reader” of Matthew’s Gospel, I further argue for the structural role of these five speeches in the plot. Therefore, all five speeches of Jesus are to be located in different narrative blocks and thus have different narrative functions within the plot.
山道期刊, 2022
In this article, I rely on ritual theories to explore the social function of death-related ritual... more In this article, I rely on ritual theories to explore the social function of death-related rituals in early Christianity. I investigate funerals, commemorations, and rituals associated with the death of Jesus Christ, such as the Lord’s Supper and baptism. By comparing such rituals in early Christianity and in Greco-Roman society, I argue that rituals in early Christian groups not only contributed to Christian self-definition and the unity of the groups, but also led to some “ritual transgressions” against Greco-Roman traditions and social structures. First, while funerals in most Greco-Roman groups were rites of passage to deal with the discontinuity caused by death, early Christians tried to proclaim continuity in their funerals because they believed in the creative power by which God had raised the body of Jesus Christ from the dead. For Christians, the fleshly body was no longer the lowest element in the cosmic hierarchy nor the unresolvable problem of discontinuity. Second, while the commemorations in most Greco-Roman groups were opportunities to unite people of similar status in the social hierarchy and to strengthen the previous social connections once again, Christians made efforts in the Lord’s Supper (the commemoration of Jesus) to cross social boundaries and to form an “alternative community” that was more egalitarian and in line with their faith in resurrection. The apostle Paul further considered baptism as an imaginary funeral for a baptizand because, by participating into this alternative community, a believer was deemed to separate from the hierarchical society to some extents. Thus, Christian groups embodied their distinct faith in Christ’s resurrection partly through their ritual practices and their “ritual transgressions.”
Biblical Theology Bulletin , 2022
In this article, I argue that the ritual experience of water-baptism plays an essential role in P... more In this article, I argue that the ritual experience of water-baptism plays an essential role in Paul's metaphorical expression and rhetorical purpose in 1 Corinthians 12:13. To explore the role of baptism, I use conceptual blending theory from cognitive linguistics to define and demonstrate the metaphorical ways in which ritual functions in the human mind. In so doing, I emphasize the performance of a ritual itself and the contextual perception of its performance, arguing for a metaphorical relationship between the two. I apply conceptual blending analysis to interpret the complex interplay of three metaphors in 1 Corinthians 12:13. I argue that Paul forms a conceptual blend of three metaphors in this verse, and that baptism, the water-rite, plays a pivotal role in this blend by providing the physical pattern of immersion and the cultural understanding of this immersion as a new belonging. Using baptism, Paul achieves his purpose of re-picturing the reception of the Spirit and appealing for social union. This verse thus presents an excellent case of the role of ritual in the emergence of early Christianity and the explanatory power of ritual studies to the New Testament texts.
Journal for the Study of the New Testament , 2019
Instead of blurring the oral and the literary media in antiquity (R. Bultmann and B. Gerhardsson)... more Instead of blurring the oral and the literary media in antiquity (R. Bultmann and B. Gerhardsson) or dividing them with unsatisfying principles (J.D.G. Dunn), this paper follows recent scholarship on orality in order to explore the mechanical operation of ancient scribal memory as the oral-written interface. In so doing, I argue that the agreement of order between the Synoptic Gospels is characteristic of memory-based utilizations of written texts and does not necessarily indicate the scribes’ visual contact with those texts. It is, rather, the very high degree of verbal agreement that indicates Matthew's frequent visual contact with Q 10-11 and 12-13 throughout the gospel, even when following Mark's narrative sequence by memory. This approach explains the infrequent micro-conflations on the Two Document Hypothesis (2DH) with a more mechanically probable procedure, and so strengthens the argument that the 2DH is more feasible than the Two Gospel Hypothesis and the Farrer-Goulder Hypothesis.
華神期刊, 2015
保羅思想中的「天啟觀點」 近年來成為保羅研究的一個熱門話題，其重點在於保羅的「世界觀」與「人觀」，並以此為根基重新探討保羅思想中基督所帶來的福音。筆者在相當程度上認同本書中幾位支持以「天啟觀點」... more 保羅思想中的「天啟觀點」 近年來成為保羅研究的一個熱門話題，其重點在於保羅的「世界觀」與「人觀」，並以此為根基重新探討保羅思想中基督所帶來的福音。筆者在相當程度上認同本書中幾位支持以「天啟觀點」為詮釋路徑的作者之論述（de Boer、Barclay、Gaventa、Eastman、Martyn），也認為本書和其討論的「天啟觀點」有被介紹和進一步評論的價值。本文會先從近代保羅研究中的人觀之爭，說明此詮釋路徑在論戰中的位置，再針對此路徑在保羅研究中引發的關鍵議題（同時也是本書中多數文章所刻意處理的議題），逐議題介紹、評論書中作者們的論點。
Book Reviews by Kai-Hsuan Chang
The Expository Times, 2020
In this revised doctoral dissertation, Callon investigates a relatively unexplored area of early ... more In this revised doctoral dissertation, Callon investigates a relatively unexplored area of early Christianity: the early Christian utilization of contemporaneous physiognomic thought as a rhetorical strategy and means of persuasion. Particularly brilliant is her analysis of the persuasive power of masculinization, effeminacy, and descriptions of female chastity and docility in the service of male competition in a predominantly masculine world.
Toronto Journal of Theology, 2019
Conference Papers by Kai-Hsuan Chang
感謝吳國安老師在這篇文章當中，對「歷史神學」（或者說，對神學的「歷史性」）有非常精彩的闡述和思考。也很感恩我雖然身為聖經學者，但是今天卻很榮幸、又很惶恐地被接納在「神學人團契」當中。其實我很難提... more 感謝吳國安老師在這篇文章當中，對「歷史神學」（或者說，對神學的「歷史性」）有非常精彩的闡述和思考。也很感恩我雖然身為聖經學者，但是今天卻很榮幸、又很惶恐地被接納在「神學人團契」當中。其實我很難提供一個本科的、比較正常的文章回應，也很難針對文章的方法和論述提出同意或疑慮。所以，我就以「聖經神學」的角度來回應這一篇關於「歷史神學」的文章。我要回應的題目是〈如果聖經神學也是一種歷史神學〉。
Applying embodied cognition theory and cognitive linguistics, this paper investigates how Paul tr... more Applying embodied cognition theory and cognitive linguistics, this paper investigates how Paul tried to reconcile the religious experience of bodily transformation and the everyday experience of mortality, arguing that he eventually redefines the latter as a constitutive part of the former. Paul struggles greatly with the mortal body largely because his experience and expectation in Christ are very much somatically-oriented. Arguing against the common ancient ideas that consider spirituality as the transcendence of the body, Paul maintains that the body is not to be escaped or abandoned but to be transformed both in experiences here and now and in the afterlife. In 2 Cor 3:18 Paul explicitly claims that “we all are being transformed.” This is an ongoing transformation that starts when one “turns to the Lord” (3:16) and participates “in Christ” (3:14). Using recent findings in the cognitive science of religious experience as well as the ancient concept of the “porous body” (Martin 1995), I will argue that Paul’s statement about ongoing transformation starting at a person’s religious initiation is at least partially dependent on 1 Cor 12:13, where Paul integrates the ecstatic experience of receiving the Spirit and the ritual experience of being baptized into the body of Christ. Applying conceptual blending theory, I will show that Paul interprets the Corinthians’ religious experience as the ongoing transformation of the body. However, Paul still has to face the problem of the weakness and ongoing decay of the body. This is a reasonable challenge to the idea of ongoing transformation especially when it is followed by the conviction of a future transformation in the afterlife (cf. 1 Cor 15; 2 Cor 5). If the body is already being transformed and will continue to be in existence in the afterlife in a glorious form, why is it obviously weak and wearing away in our present life? Being concerned with mortality, Paul delivers his fullest exposition of bodily transformation in 2 Cor 4-5. Again, applying conceptual blending theory, the second half of this paper then investigates the way in which Paul uses the metaphor of “treasure in clay jars” (2 Cor 4:7) to distinguish the outer and the inner of a person and to argue that the decay of the outer mortal body contributes to the transformation of the inner person, an inner transformation that will culminate at the complete transformation in the future (5:1-5). In so doing, Paul spiritualizes the experience of mortality and redefines it as an ongoing religious experience producing an eternal glory (4:17).
本文採現代文學理論的劇情分析，探討馬太福音的敘事本質和敘事發展，從而對在學術界爭辯已久的馬太福音整體結構，提出一個能同時解釋兩種主要分段公式的解答。過去採「耶穌說完了這些話」分段的學者，未能在結... more 本文採現代文學理論的劇情分析，探討馬太福音的敘事本質和敘事發展，從而對在學術界爭辯已久的馬太福音整體結構，提出一個能同時解釋兩種主要分段公式的解答。過去採「耶穌說完了這些話」分段的學者，未能在結構分析中呈現馬太福音的敘事進展，因此主張敘事分析的學者改採「從那時候，耶穌就」分段。但是本文要指出，過去的敘事分析雖然正確地指出馬太福音的講論是鑲嵌在劇情之中，卻沒有完整呈現講論段落的敘事功能，也因此忽略了一個重大的關鍵劇情。本文透過探討馬太福音敘事的「對話性」，論證對預設的讀者群體來說，「門徒群體的建立」是劇情發展的主軸之一，因此9:36–10:1是劇情的其中一個關鍵轉折，而這使第二次講論被劃分在劇情的下一個大段落中。如此，兩種分段公式各有其分段意義，五大講論都應被劃分在整體敘事的不同階段，對劇中角色與預設讀者的「群體建立」都產生不同的階段性功能。
This paper explores the correlation between cosmology and ritual experience of eternal time in an... more This paper explores the correlation between cosmology and ritual experience of eternal time in antiquity. As cognitive linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson demonstrate, time is usually conceptualized through spatial metaphors because people conceptualize abstract ideas on the basis of concrete experiences. Thus, the conception and organization of time usually correlate to understandings of cosmic space. Paying attention to this correlation, this paper argues that the different organizations of time in Qumran and in Greco-Roman society revealed different understandings of cosmic order, and that these understandings in turn led to different ritual experiences of divine eternity as reflected in the Scrolls and in Pauline traditions. First, the Qumranites observed a calendar that did not accord with the course of nature because they adopted the idea that the cosmos had fallen and the heavenly bodies had “transgressed the commandments of God” (1 Enoch 18:14-16). Thus, the calendar synchronized the community’s ritual time of sacrifices and festivals with the divine time in heaven instead of natural regularity. It seems that, accordingly, sacred time was conceptualized in a spatial and vertical sense and eternity was ritually experienced as being “lifted up” to the heavenly space to an “eternal height” (1 QH xi 21). Second, although Paul also considered the cosmos as fallen, he conceptualized the alternative time in the otherworldly space (eternity) in a different way and claimed that eternity could be experienced “in Christ.” It seems that the Hellenistic idea of the body and the cosmos had influenced Paul’s gentile mission and his teachings. As reflected in Greco-Roman organizations of time, time was assumed as an aspect of cosmic order and regularity that were supposed to be in harmony with the human body (Martin 1995; A. R. Jones 2016). The Romans employed this idea in their mythmaking of the Augustan power and in their figurative representations of the emperor’s body. The emperor was the embodiment of his own power, the corpus imperii, and was in harmony with the cosmos. It is noteworthy that, although Paul believed that the cosmos had fallen, he similarly conceived the community as the body of its leading figure, Christ, who has rescued the whole cosmos. Paul also considered members as having been baptized into this body instead of the corpus imperii (1 Cor 12:12-27). I will argue that this understanding of baptism had a continual effect on the later Pauline thoughts and traditions, and influenced the experience of ritual time in Christian communities. Through baptism, members had entered the body of Christ, in which all the fullness dwelled (Col 1:19), and had participated in Christ’s death and resurrection (Col 2:12-13; cf. Rom 6:3-4). The past, present, and future collapsed in the body of Christ through ritual, and so members have experienced a sort of death while yet biologically living and experienced their eternal life in Christ (Col 3:1-11). Two distinct yet related understandings of cosmic order thus led to two spatial conceptualizations of ritual time in the Scrolls and in Pauline traditions.
Applying analytic tools from cognitive linguistics (image schema and conceptual blending theory),... more Applying analytic tools from cognitive linguistics (image schema and conceptual blending theory), this paper explores the interplay between ritual and knowledge in Rom 6:3-4. It argues that ritual not only symbolizes and conveys ideas but may in turn shape the symbolized or conveyed ideas. Many cognitive linguists have indicated that human cognition is embodied: our ideas and language are constructed largely on the basis of recurrent patterns of bodily experiences. Thus, by providing recurrent pattern of physical practice, ritual can function as an instrument of teaching and transmission of religious knowledge. I will argue that this didactic effect of ritual is usually achieved by “conceptual blends” constructed in the ritual practice. Specifically, I will demonstrate that Paul enacts a conceptual blend in Rom 6:3-4 between the reversal pattern in baptism of being physically immersed into water and raised up, and the similar pattern of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-4). Studies on ritual and cultural backgrounds, such as the ritual use of water in Greco-Roman society and the ancient understanding of the body, will help to illuminate the conditions by which these two reversal patterns can be conceptually blended. By forming this blend, Paul instructs the Romans that a baptizand has died and been buried together with Christ. This blend seems effective since the idea of conjoined burial in baptism later appears in Col 2:12. However, ritual can also generate new and even unintended knowledge through the recurrent pattern and the conceptual blend. In Rom 6:3-4, the idea of a baptizand being resurrected together with Christ is implied in the upward movement of the reversal pattern in baptism and is symmetrical to the downward movement. Thus, based on the blend that I propose, I argue that the “conjoined resurrection” would naturally and conceptually follow the conjoined death in baptism, as explicitly stated in Col 2:12-13 (cf. 3:1) with the same logic of symmetry. However, unlike Colossians, Paul carefully sets up a tension in Romans between the degrees of identification with the death of Christ and the identification with his resurrection. It appears that, by forming a blend in 6:3-4, Paul’s intention was only to validate the idea of dying with Christ and strengthen his argument about the law (cf. 7:1-6) without inventing the idea of being resurrected with Christ in baptism. It was the symmetrical pattern of baptism that would in time, through conceptual blending, lead to the idea of realized and conjoined resurrection in Christian communities.
Applying conceptual blending theory, this paper argues that when Paul uses the image of water-bap... more Applying conceptual blending theory, this paper argues that when Paul uses the image of water-baptism to describe the experience of receiving the Spirit in 1 Cor 12:13, he enacts a conceptual blend, one that not only achieves Paul’s rhetorical purpose but also generates innovations in his thought. According to cognitive linguistics, embodied experience provides important basis for human conceptualization. In this way, our experiences in rituals often provide material anchors and conceptual structures for conceptual blending. Thus, countering some scholars’ dismissal of water-baptism in 1 Cor 12:13 (e.g. J. D. G. Dunn), cognitive linguistics and blending theory can help us to recognize the material and experiential aspects of Paul’s reasoning. Both embodied experiences in the blend—baptism with water and the reception of the Spirit—were crucial for early Christian initiation. However, since the differentiation of spiritual gifts is causing the divisions (1 Cor 12:1-4, 25-30; 14:36-38), Paul has to argue for the “one Spirit” in 1 Cor 12:13. Thus, I argue that, in seeking another basis to support his claim of sharing one Spirit and being united in one body, Paul blends the immersion image taken from baptismal experience (cf. the theme of equality through baptism in Gal 3:27-28) with the pre-blended image of receiving the Spirit conceptualized as drinking water. In so doing, he innovatively argues that the reception of the Spirit is not only receiving it into one’s body but is also an immersion in the Spirit and so, entry into a special social body—the body of Christ. In addition to achieving Paul’s rhetorical purpose of concord, the blended image of the Spirit simultaneously surrounding and indwelling in each individual body would in time encourage the idea of ongoing bodily transformation (cf. 2 Cor 3:18), instead of simply eschatological transformation (1 Cor 15). In short, conceptual blending theory can help us to explore how embodied experiences in religious practices might have contributed to Paul’s thought-development.
Other Contributions and Sermons by Kai-Hsuan Chang
德慧文化, 2023
基督教的根源是猶太思想，而其誕生的歷史舞台，則是希臘羅馬時期的文化與社會。這誕生，起初是個微不足道的渺小開始，卻在短短一百年間，就對整個希羅世界造成驚天動地的巨大衝擊。
新約聖經見證了這衝擊的過... more 基督教的根源是猶太思想，而其誕生的歷史舞台，則是希臘羅馬時期的文化與社會。這誕生，起初是個微不足道的渺小開始，卻在短短一百年間，就對整個希羅世界造成驚天動地的巨大衝擊。
新約聖經見證了這衝擊的過程。一方面，基督徒當然要倚附於社會既有的連結、制度和資源，這社群才可能成長、壯大；另一方面，基督徒社群偏偏又全面性地與世界格格不入，難怪保羅說，因著十字架，他向世界已經死了，並且在基督裡成為新的創造（見加六14-15）。要維持「社群存活、成長」與「彰顯十字架本質」之間的張力是困難的，而新約聖經正是促成這艱鉅過程的文本。
本課程要透過新約聖經，描繪早期基督徒社群的建造與崛起，並剖析聖經文本在這過程中所發揮的力量。我們將從幾個關鍵的向度，觀察早期基督徒如何在最實際的社會運作中，本著十字架的啟示，衝撞了希羅社會當中的榮耀與羞辱觀念、恩主與受恩人網絡、潔淨觀念與民族邊界、以及帝國崇拜的多神世界觀。
第一講
另類社群：建立基督的身體
1. 希羅政治哲學中「身體的比喻」
2. 基督徒社群與希羅社會結構
第二講
重劃榮辱的另類社群
1. 解析榮耀與羞辱的觀念
2. 為世界重劃界線的十字架
第三講
踐行恩典神學的另類社群
1. 希羅恩惠文化與恩主網絡
2. 新約作者看恩主制度
3. 從社會學理論看恩典神學的踐行
第四講
突破邊界的另類社群
1. 解析潔淨與污穢的觀念
2. 「和好」是新的「聖潔」？
第五講
不容於帝國意識形態的另類社群
1. 軍事征服與世界觀建構
2. 帝國崇拜與社會結構
3. 天啟思想的反抗
第六講
參與「轉化」的另類社群
1. 十字架作為天啟事件
2. 基督徒社群與希羅社會體制的離合關係
《當代基督十架》（新北市：校園書房）, 2021
在二十一世紀的今天，本書最叫人驚豔之處，可能是最後一部分整整用了三章的篇幅，討論十字架的信息所建立的生活與群體。在這重視主觀經驗的世代，以及強調群體的學術氛圍下，許多人對十字架的理解，是側重於它... more 在二十一世紀的今天，本書最叫人驚豔之處，可能是最後一部分整整用了三章的篇幅，討論十字架的信息所建立的生活與群體。在這重視主觀經驗的世代，以及強調群體的學術氛圍下，許多人對十字架的理解，是側重於它傳達了基督自我犧牲的思想範式，以及一種主觀經歷的轉化力量使人能效法這思想範式，並因此能建立一個遵循此範式的群體。這個面向的理解確實有幫助，也是傳統思想常常忽略的。但是斯托得牧師不但沒有忽略這個面向，反而精準地將這種偏向主觀與群體的理解，重新建基於客觀的代贖事實。盼望本書能幫助讀者重新回到古舊的十字架，重拾代贖的信息，而能夠在十字架的光照之中回應當代，成為當代十架群體。
Uploads
Books by Kai-Hsuan Chang
Specifically, this book demonstrates that developments in Paul’s ideas about “bodily transformation at resurrection” —reflected in 1 Corinthians 15—resulted from a change in the experiential patterns on which his new idea is constructed (rather than “transformation during heavenly ascent” as seen in Jewish traditions of resurrection). I identify this radical development in experiential patterns by applying cognitive linguistic tools to two considerations: (1) whether Paul had contextual reasons to generate his innovation in 1 Corinthians 15, and (2) whether Paul’s innovation recurred or had continual effects in Christian groups. In so doing, I show that Paul’s innovation directly addressed a contextual issue of death rites in Corinth and exerted a continuing effect on Paul’s later ideas of transformation, spirit possession, and baptism.
Thus, instead of considering theological ideas as emerging solely from intellectual activity necessarily indebted to existing ideas in Paul’s cultural milieu, this study offers a rigorous and testable methodology to argue that bodily experience contributed significantly to his thought-development.
Articles by Kai-Hsuan Chang
Book Reviews by Kai-Hsuan Chang
Conference Papers by Kai-Hsuan Chang
Other Contributions and Sermons by Kai-Hsuan Chang
新約聖經見證了這衝擊的過程。一方面，基督徒當然要倚附於社會既有的連結、制度和資源，這社群才可能成長、壯大；另一方面，基督徒社群偏偏又全面性地與世界格格不入，難怪保羅說，因著十字架，他向世界已經死了，並且在基督裡成為新的創造（見加六14-15）。要維持「社群存活、成長」與「彰顯十字架本質」之間的張力是困難的，而新約聖經正是促成這艱鉅過程的文本。
本課程要透過新約聖經，描繪早期基督徒社群的建造與崛起，並剖析聖經文本在這過程中所發揮的力量。我們將從幾個關鍵的向度，觀察早期基督徒如何在最實際的社會運作中，本著十字架的啟示，衝撞了希羅社會當中的榮耀與羞辱觀念、恩主與受恩人網絡、潔淨觀念與民族邊界、以及帝國崇拜的多神世界觀。
第一講
另類社群：建立基督的身體
1. 希羅政治哲學中「身體的比喻」
2. 基督徒社群與希羅社會結構
第二講
重劃榮辱的另類社群
1. 解析榮耀與羞辱的觀念
2. 為世界重劃界線的十字架
第三講
踐行恩典神學的另類社群
1. 希羅恩惠文化與恩主網絡
2. 新約作者看恩主制度
3. 從社會學理論看恩典神學的踐行
第四講
突破邊界的另類社群
1. 解析潔淨與污穢的觀念
2. 「和好」是新的「聖潔」？
第五講
不容於帝國意識形態的另類社群
1. 軍事征服與世界觀建構
2. 帝國崇拜與社會結構
3. 天啟思想的反抗
第六講
參與「轉化」的另類社群
1. 十字架作為天啟事件
2. 基督徒社群與希羅社會體制的離合關係
Specifically, this book demonstrates that developments in Paul’s ideas about “bodily transformation at resurrection” —reflected in 1 Corinthians 15—resulted from a change in the experiential patterns on which his new idea is constructed (rather than “transformation during heavenly ascent” as seen in Jewish traditions of resurrection). I identify this radical development in experiential patterns by applying cognitive linguistic tools to two considerations: (1) whether Paul had contextual reasons to generate his innovation in 1 Corinthians 15, and (2) whether Paul’s innovation recurred or had continual effects in Christian groups. In so doing, I show that Paul’s innovation directly addressed a contextual issue of death rites in Corinth and exerted a continuing effect on Paul’s later ideas of transformation, spirit possession, and baptism.
Thus, instead of considering theological ideas as emerging solely from intellectual activity necessarily indebted to existing ideas in Paul’s cultural milieu, this study offers a rigorous and testable methodology to argue that bodily experience contributed significantly to his thought-development.
新約聖經見證了這衝擊的過程。一方面，基督徒當然要倚附於社會既有的連結、制度和資源，這社群才可能成長、壯大；另一方面，基督徒社群偏偏又全面性地與世界格格不入，難怪保羅說，因著十字架，他向世界已經死了，並且在基督裡成為新的創造（見加六14-15）。要維持「社群存活、成長」與「彰顯十字架本質」之間的張力是困難的，而新約聖經正是促成這艱鉅過程的文本。
本課程要透過新約聖經，描繪早期基督徒社群的建造與崛起，並剖析聖經文本在這過程中所發揮的力量。我們將從幾個關鍵的向度，觀察早期基督徒如何在最實際的社會運作中，本著十字架的啟示，衝撞了希羅社會當中的榮耀與羞辱觀念、恩主與受恩人網絡、潔淨觀念與民族邊界、以及帝國崇拜的多神世界觀。
第一講
另類社群：建立基督的身體
1. 希羅政治哲學中「身體的比喻」
2. 基督徒社群與希羅社會結構
第二講
重劃榮辱的另類社群
1. 解析榮耀與羞辱的觀念
2. 為世界重劃界線的十字架
第三講
踐行恩典神學的另類社群
1. 希羅恩惠文化與恩主網絡
2. 新約作者看恩主制度
3. 從社會學理論看恩典神學的踐行
第四講
突破邊界的另類社群
1. 解析潔淨與污穢的觀念
2. 「和好」是新的「聖潔」？
第五講
不容於帝國意識形態的另類社群
1. 軍事征服與世界觀建構
2. 帝國崇拜與社會結構
3. 天啟思想的反抗
第六講
參與「轉化」的另類社群
1. 十字架作為天啟事件
2. 基督徒社群與希羅社會體制的離合關係