In April 2016 Manchester eScholar was replaced by the University of Manchester’s new Research Information Management System, Pure. In the autumn the University’s research outputs will be available to search and browse via a new Research Portal. Until then the University’s full publication record can be accessed via a temporary portal and the old eScholar content is available to search and browse via this archive.

Related resources

Search for item elsewhere

University researcher(s)

Academic department(s)

Face in Galatians: ‘Boasting in the Cross’ as Reconfigured Honour in Paul’s Letter

Harvey, David Stephen

[Thesis]. Manchester, UK: The University of Manchester; 2016.

Access to files

FULL-TEXT.PDF (pdf)

Abstract

This thesis uses a model of honour to make sense of Paul’s response to the situation in Galatians as he describes it in Galatians 6.12-15. We argue that the use of εὐπροσωπέω at 6.12, and its close proximity to καυχάομαι in the following verses, highlights that honour concern is present in this situation. We assess this by considering face, a term used by social theorists to describe the ‘self as it appears to others’, and facework, the strategies for maintaining and managing such — this is considered both as a social-scientific model and as a concept within ancient Mediterranean culture. This argument holds that Paul contradicts the opponents’ seeking of ‘good face’ (εὐπροσωπέω) as it is in direct contrast to what we term God’s 'prosopagnosia' — πρόσωπον [ὁ] θεὸς ἀνθρώπου οὐ λαμβάνει (2.6), and to his own position, which is to ‘boast in the cross’ (6.14). We read the idea of the boast in the cross as Paul’s attempt to reconfigure honour within the Christian assemblies of Galatia, a reconfiguring that centralises Christ’s disregard for common perceptions of honour, exemplified in his crucifixion. This approach then makes sense of Paul’s autobiographical data as his own attempt to model Christ’s 'prosopagnosia' and similarly reads the data in 5.13-6.10 as Paul’s exhortation that the community live in this manner.