Description: In writing to the Corinthians, Paul was grappling with fundamental issues concerning the lifestyle of Christians, and specifically with questions about marriage, interracial marriage, and remarriage. The so-called hos me passage in I Corinthians 7 has been identified as a key passage for understanding Paul's expressed understanding of an appropriate model of Christian existence in the world. This one pastoral-counseling passage has had significant influence on the development of Western social orientation (not limited to the issues of marriage) and of Christian piety. Paul, the Worldly Ascetic is a fundamental reevaluation of a benchmark passage, I Corinthians 7, and is itself a model of historical-critical exegesis. This insightful work will be welcomed by students of Paul, early Christianity, and history of religion, by classicists, and by those who seek an understanding of how we may rightly engage the world in which we live. Endorsements: "Vincent Wimbush's book represents a significant contribution to our understanding of Pauline Christianity. On the basis of Paul's teachings concerning marriage in 1 Corinthians 7, Wimbush makes an illuminating attempt to identify a characteristically Pauline response to the Greco-Roman world, a particularly Pauline form of worldly renunciation and participation, that finds linguistic expression in the hos me exhortations and practical consequence in Paul's teachings concerning marriage. This will be an important book for all persons concerned with lifestyles of the earliest Christian communities and their social world." --Darrell J. Doughty, Drew University About the Contributor(s): Vincent L. Wimbush, PhD, Harvard University, is Professor of Religion and Director of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures at the Claremont Graduate University.