Description

This socio-rhetorical analysis examines Paul's construction of sexual Christian bodies in 1 Corinthians by utilizing new insights from conceptual integration theory (blending theory) about the embodied processes of meaning making. Paul's teaching about proper sexual behavior in this letter is most profitably viewed as an example of early Christian didactic wisdom discourse. This discourse, moreover, draws upon resources available in apocalyptic and priestly cognitive frames to increase the rhetorical force of the argument.

Reading Paul's argument through the lens of rhetorical invention, the author demonstrates that Paul first attempts to show the Corinthians why sexual immorality is the worst of all bodily sins before shifting rhetorical focus to explain to them how they can best avoid this infraction against the body of Christ.