Killing Time in the Waiting Room

This week, my mother's physiotherapy continues in the early morning. So in order to kill time in the waiting room, I am reading Cornelia Cyss Corcker, Reading 1 Corinthians in the Twenty-First Century (London: T & T Clark, 2004). I bought this book while I was studying in the UK back in 2004 but only managed to read a chapter then. Finally, I have a chance to read the entire book now.

"One of the challenges of reading 1 Corinthians these days is that its style seems foreign to us and many of its passages seem irrelevant to us today. On the other hand, many of the passages have become too familiar, overly authoritative, and too oppressively close for comfort in the lives of many Christians."

"Cyss uses the insights of hermeneutics and other critical methods to offer a new reading of Paul's letter for our day. Since much of the letter discusses decisions that have been made or ought to be made by the Corinthians about people, beliefs, behaviors, and situations, Cyss reads 1 Corinthians in terms of discernment and judgement."

The contents of the book have already captured my attention:

Chapter 1: Introductory thoughts on reading 1 Corinthians
chapter 2: Reading 1 Corinthians in the twenty-first century
Chapter 3: The aporetic character of the new reality of God's reign
Chapter 4: Dialogues concerning the new community in Christ
Chapter 5: Old moral order or new law of Christ? : the issue of discerning and judging
Chapter 6: The text of 1 Corinthians and its twenty-first-century readers : moving toward praxis and open-endedness.

I look forward to engaging Croker's utilisation of Mikhail Bakhtin's literary theory of "dialogism" in unpacking 1 Corinthians in which an analysis of the aporetic tensions that determine Paul's eschatology, ecclesiology, and ethics is offered.

Looks like it will be time well spent in the waiting room for the next few days.