Second Corinthians and Paul’s Gospel of Human Mortality: How Paul’s Experience of Death Authorizes His Apostolic Authority in Corinth

In this close reading of Second Corinthians and examination of prevailing attitudes toward death in Greco-Roman Corinth, Richard I. Deibert proposes Paul’s physical mortality as the window through which to understand both the mystery of his collapsing authority in Corinth and the heart of his gospel. In his own experience of physical dying, Paul experiences the deadness of the resurrected Jesus, which paradoxically communicates life to him and through him to his congregations. Paul discovers that death has been transfigured into a source of life and, consequently, that human mortality has been infused with saving power. This study of human mortality clarifies, both for Paul’s day and for our own, how crucial it is to guard the human person as an inseparable unity of body and soul, and to keep theology grounded in experience. Richard I. Deibert’s work is of vital interest not only to students of early Christian and New Testament history, but also to students of anthropology, philosophy, and theology.