Seconda Lettera Ai Corinti

In this addition to the well-received Paideia series, a respected senior New Testament scholar examines cultural context and theological meaning in Second Corinthians. Paideia commentaries explore how New Testament texts form Christian readers by ∙ attending to the ancient narrative and rhetorical strategies the text employs ∙ showing how the text shapes theological convictions and moral habits ∙ commenting on the final, canonical form of each New Testament book ∙ focusing on the cultural, literary, and theological settings of the text ∙ making judicious use of maps, photos, and sidebars in a reader-friendly format Students, pastors, and other readers will appreciate the historical, literary, and theological insight offered in this practical commentary.

The works of Ambrosiaster, a Christian writing in Rome in the late fourth century, were influential on his near contemporaries and throughout the Middle Ages. In the first half of her study, Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe addresses the problem of the author's mysterious identity (which scholars have puzzled over for centuries) and places him in a broad historical and intellectual context. In the second half she addresses Ambrosiaster's political theology, an idea which has been explored in other late Roman Christian writers but which has never been addressed in his works. She looks at how Ambrosiaster's attitudes to social and political order were formed on the basis of theological concepts and the interpretation of scripture, and shows that he espoused a rigid hierarchical and monarchical organization in the church, society, and the Roman empire. He also traced close connections between the Devil, characterized as a rebel against God, and the earthly tyrants and usurpers who followed his example.