Luise Schottroff - 1 Corinthians

Also in this field of investigation, Luise Schottroff is one of the women pioneers. Already in an essay in 1985, she raised the question, »How justified is feminist criticism of Paul?« 7and she analyzed therein a series of passages from his letters in which women are explicitly spoken about. She advocated interpreting these statements in the concrete context of each particular congregational situation, and to consider the history of interpretation separately (beginning with the Pastoral Epistles, continuing with the early church and up to the present). For treating Paul in the early phase of feminist theology, that was not self-evident. For, according to Schottroff, the history of discrimination against and oppression of women in Christianity is closely connected with the interpretation of the Pauline epistles. Many women have therefore rejected having anything to do with Paul, the »enemy of women,« for that would be »attempts to rescue oppressive texts incapable of being rescued.« 8This attitude also continues to be nourished in many popular interpretations of Paul, for the cliché of the authoritarian apostle, hostile to women and the body, battling against the Jewish law, holds on tenaciously to the present time. Summing the situation up in the year 1985, Luise Schottroff said: »Compared with the self-understanding of the male church and of male theology today, Paul was a feminist pioneer« (246). Since then much has fundamentally changed, not least thanks to feminist investigations and their reception in wider theological and ecclesiastical contexts. Scholarly feminist exegesis arrived at a more differentiated perspective on Pauline theology. In her overview of feminist research on Paul, Luzia Sutter Rehmann summarized that the interest has shifted: The issue is no longer presenting the suppressed history of women in the Pauline churches but a critical deconstruction of androcentric writings and a new sketch of Paul and his letters. 9

Feminist theology was an essential center of gravity for Luise Schottroff in the research realm and in university political work, in which she was very involved for the advancement and networking of feminist theologians. Thus in 1986 she was involved in the establishment of the European Society of Women in Theological Research (ESWTR), an interreligious network for women theologians of all disciplines. In 1991 she co-published the Wörterbuch der Feministischen Theologie , which in 2002 underwent a thorough reworking and fundamental expansion. To the standard works in the German-speaking realm also belongs the Kompendium Feministische Bibelauslegung , which in 1998 was published by her and Marie-Theres Wacker. It offers a short commentary, with the focus on questions of relationships between the sexes, on all the biblical books, including the Apocrypha, and on selected extra-canonical writings. In 2012 it was published anew in an English translation under the title Feminist Biblical Interpretation. A Compendium of Critical Commentary on the Books of the Bible and Related Literature .

Feminist theology was for Luise Schottroff inextricably connected with liberation-theology oriented social history and questions of Jewish-Christian dialogue, which is shown in an exemplary way by her book Lydias ungeduldige Schwestern. Feministische Sozialgeschichte des frühen Christentums. 10[A year after its publication in German in 1994, the English translation appeared as Lydia’s Impatient Sisters. A Feminist Social History of Early Christianity . Louisville, Kentucky 1995; trans.] In the present commentary Luise Schottroff takes up her own interpretations from earlier times and changes them, in part fundamentally, as, for example, the interpretations of 1 Cor 11:2–16 or 1 Cor 14:34–38. From these examples it can be seen that she always took up current literature and always self-critically engaged with her own perspectives.

The three perspectives that marked the work of Luise Schottroff: social history, Christian-Jewish dialogue and feminist theology determine also the concept of the Bibel in gerechter Sprache (2006, 2011), of which she was one of the editors. Therein she is responsible for the translation of the Gospel of Matthew and also of the First Letter to the Congregation in Corinth, which she developed further in the present commentary and whose backgrounds she extensively developed.

I myself have worked together with Luise Schottroff for many years and discussed current projects. Thus I was able on a continuing basis to accompany the origin of this commentary, and I am especially happy, therefore, that it is now appearing in a second edition. Almost ready for the publisher is an English translation of the commentary, which will also enable its international reception. I deeply hope that in the long run the commentary will find women and men readers who will engage deeply with Luise Schottroff’s interpretations, which are careful, inspiring, often surprising, and always borne along by a deep spirituality, and that these readers will be inspired by her interpretation of Paul’s theology.

For their support in updating of commentary I thank Dr. Marlene Crüsemann and Prof. Dr. Carsten Jochum-Bortfeld.

Wuppertal, August 2020

Claudia Janssen

Work on this book has led me on a journey of discovery into the life of a large Roman-Hellenistic city, Corinth. Paul was a tour guide into the history of the early Roman Empire. In his First Letter to Corinth it becomes evident how hard daily life in this city was, including for Paul himself. In the midst of this city a resistance community has come together, made up of Jews and those of other nations, a community that has, and lives from, a great vision. From the Torah they have learned this: Israel’s God wants all people and the whole world to experience fullness of life. Paul shares this community’s way with enthusiasm and passion. Through this letter Paul became a source of inspiration for me: it is possible, even under conditions such as those he faced, to construct a common life and to orient yourself daily on the vision of God’s justice for the whole world.

On this journey of discovery, I was accompanied by a group of faithful women companions, who shared with me curiosity about a different Paul and the surprise of unexpected discoveries. Without the continuous exegetical and spiritual dialogue that I carried on with Claudia Janssen, this book would not have come into being. Marlene Crüsemann accompanied the work from the beginning and developed new ideas about the Second Letter to Corinth that are fundamental for understanding 1 Corinthians and Paul as a whole. Finally, she took upon herself the laborious task of a full editorial reading. Ute Ochtendung gave the manuscript her thorough and competent attention. Her support and sound judgment again and again gave me the courage to carry on this work. I have the great joy of being able to work regularly with a group of five women colleagues on the further development of translations in the Bibel in gerechter Sprache . Dietlinde Jessen, Luise Metzler, Friederike Oertelt, Susanne Paul and Cathrin Szameit participated with me in the considerations that went into the translation of 1 Corinthians into German—from the details about how to translate individual words to the fundamental questions about the relevance of such texts for 21 stcentury congregations. Our common work was and is inspiring, encouraging and always enjoyable. During walks together in the Dönche [a large nature reserve in the city of Kassel, translator], I experienced many attempts to find clarity during the course of my work. Ariane Garlichs posed creative and challenging questions from the perspectives of pedagogy and psychoanalysis.