Power in Weakness

This most recent addition to the popular Trinity New Testament in Context (NTC) commentary series, edited by J. Andrew Overman and Howard Clark Kee, focuses on the apostle Paul's refusal to match strength for strength with his detractors. Instead, Paul stresses that authentic Christian ministry is characterized by weakness and suffering, specifically the weakness and paradigmatic sufferings endured by the crucified Jesus.

While not a rhetorical analysis of 2 Corinthians, this book nevertheless attends to Paul's rhetorical skills in resolving the Corinthian controversies. It attempts to show that Paul's theological formulations are best understood as products of rhetorical responses to controversial issues of authority and social location.

The preponderance of disputed arguments and narratives in 2 Corinthians renders this letter highly unusual in the Pauline corpus and one of the most challenging for the biblical detective to unravel. Sze-kar Wan, therefore, has written a commentary that helps readers look closely at the texts relevant to the problem of dislocation, providing directional pointers that enable readers, on their own, to develop these pointers to their logical conclusions.

Sze-kar Wan is Associate Professor of New Testament at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Massachussets.

For: Clergy; college, university, and seminary students; scholars; general readers