Specters of Paul: Sexual Difference in Early Christian Thought

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Specters of Paul DIVINATIONS: REREADING LATE ANCIENT RELIGION Series Editors: Daniel Boyarin, Virginia Burrus, Derek Krueger A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher. Specters of Paul Sexual Difference in Early Christian Thought Benjamin H. Dunning university of pennsylvania press philadelphia Copyright © 2011 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112 www.upenn.edu/pennpress Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dunning, Benjamin H. Specters of Paul : sexual diiference in early Christian thought / Benjamin H. Dunning. p. cm.—(Divinations: rereading late ancient religion) Includes bibliographical references (p. )and index. ISBN 978-0-8122-4307-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Women—Religious aspects—Christianity—History of doctrines—Early church, ca. 30–600. 2. Sex differences—Religious aspects—Christianity—History of doctrines—Early church, ca. 30–600. 3. Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul—Theology. I. Title. BT704.D87 2011 233'.5—dc22 2010023081 For Bob This page intentionally left blank This scene has never been read for what it is, for what is at once sheltered and exposed in its metaphors: its family metaphors. It is all about fathers and sons, about bastards unaided by any public assistance, about glorious, legitimate sons, about inheritance, sperm, sterility. Nothing is said of the mother, but this will not be held against us. And if one looks hard enough as in those pictures in which a second picture faintly can be made out, one might be able to discern her unstable form, drawn upside-down in the foliage, at the back of the garden. —Jacques Derrida, Dissemination (with reference to Plato’s Phaedrus) There was first the strangeness of Paul. —Julia Kristeva, Strangers to Ourselves This page intentionally left blank ...