PASTORAL PROBLEMS IN FIRST CORINTHIANS

The First Letter to the Corinthians is considered here as one of the best sources of our knowledge of pastoral care as practiced in the early Church, as well as suggestive and instructive for pastoral care in the church today. The author takes a position, in this respect, between the claim that the problems prevailing in the church at Corinth are identical with those of today, and that of dismissing the pastoral instruction of the epistle as having no relevance to modern times. The problems encountered in the church at Corinth are grouped under those having to do with internal dissensions; laxities toward unethical behavior coupled with precipitous censoriousness; problems of sexual conduct, involving the nature and the limits of Christian freedom; disorders in worship; and finally, the problem of destiny, which the author describes as ""the pastoral task"" in the perspective of ""practical eschatology."" Passages in the epistle are examined closely in the development of these topics. While more accessible to the reader familiar with Biblical exegesis and exposition, the volume can be helpful to all concerned with the practical problems of Christian conduct and the life of the church as a community.