Cover -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Methodological Reassessment and Proposal -- History -- Hermeneutical Proposal: Cultural Studies Approach -- The Development of the Investigation -- Chapter 1 A Rhetorical-Exegetical Analysis of 1 Corinthians 7 -- Introduction -- Interpretive Issues -- My Interpretive Framework -- Procedure -- Innertexture: A Rhetorical-Exegetical Analysis -- Introductory Analysis -- The General Literary-Rhetorical Context of 7:1-40 -- Structural Overview and Analysis of 1 Corinthians 7 -- Opening Unit: On Intercourse and Marriage (7:1-16) -- Middle Unit-Effects of God's Call on Socio-Cultural Identities (7:17-24) -- Closing Unit: On Celibate Abstention (7:25-40) -- Who Are the Target Audiences in Paul's Discourse? -- Conclusion -- Chapter 2 The Cultural and Linguistic Context of 1 Corinthians 7: Intertexture, Social, and Ideological Textures -- Introduction -- Intertexture -- Intertextual Analysis of 1 Corinthians 7 -- Oral-Scribal Intertexture -- Intratextual/Intertextual Analysis of Paul's Use of the Term Charisma -- Charisma in the Pauline Corpus -- Does Charisma Function in Paul as a Terminus Technicus? -- The Rhetorical Function of Charisma in 1 Corinthians 7 -- Cultural Intertexture -- Enkrateia -- Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle on Enkrateia -- Plato (428-347 BCE) -- Xenophon (430-355 BCE) -- Aristotle (384-322 BCE) -- Conclusion -- Paul's Reconfigured Understanding of Enkrateia in 1 Corinthians 7 -- Cultural Intertexture within Both Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Traditions and Greco-Roman Philosophical Arguments and Reasoning -- 1 Corinthians 7:29-35 as a Cultural Intertexture within Jewish and Early Christian Apocalyptic Discours -- Stoic Themes within an Apocalyptic Framework -- Social and Cultural Texture -- Specific Social Topics in 1 Corinthians 7.

Final Cultural Categories in 1 Corinthians 7 -- Ideological Texture -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3 From Paul to His Interpreters: A Selective Cross-Cultural Interpretive History -- Introduction -- Interpretations of 1 Corinthians 7 in the Early Church: Pastorals and the Acts of Paul and Thecla -- The Pastoral Epistles as Resistant Letters? -- Limitations on Ecclesiastically Recognized Widows (1 Timothy 5:3-16) -- Submissive, Silent, and Domestic Women (1 Timothy 2.9-15 -- 4:1-8 -- 2 Timothy 3:4-9 -- Titus 2:3-5) -- The Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla -- Summary of Tale and Its Socio-Religious Impact -- Reconfiguration and Recontextualization of 1 Corinthians 7 -- Conclusion -- 1 Corinthians 7 and the Debate over Marriage and Celibacy during the Patristic Period -- Introduction -- The Broader Cultural Context of the Patristic Fathers -- Procreative-Oriented Sexual Ethics -- Jerome (342-420 CE) -- Jerome's Exegesis of 1 Corinthians 7 -- Saint Augustine (354-430) -- The Doctrine of Original Sin in Broad Strokes -- Augustine's Existential Struggles with Sexual Lust -- Augustine and the Jovinian Controversy -- The Manichean Controversy -- The Pelagian Controversy -- Augustine's Engagement with 1 Corinthians 7 -- Conclusion -- Marriage and Virginity in the Reformation Era: Martin Luther and John Calvin -- Introduction -- Martin Luther (1483-1546) -- John Calvin (1509-1564) -- Conclusion -- Contemporary Interpretations of 1 Corinthians 7 -- Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza -- Richard B. Hays -- Dale B. Martin -- Conclusion and Evaluation -- Chapter 4 Polygyny: A Test Case for an Afro-Womanist-Feminist Cultural Hermeneutics -- Defining the Term "Afro-Womanist-Feminist" -- Moving from Paul's Context to the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon -- Foregrounding of My Own Location -- Hermeneutical and Ethical Questions.

The Eschatological Question: The Move from Eschatological Imminence to Eschatological Urgency -- Reappraisal of Paul's Principles of Christian Marriage in 1 Corinthians 7 from an Afro-Womanist-Feminist Perspective -- Socio-Political Factors Undergirding Polygyny in Cameroon -- Overview: Polygynous Marriages in Cameroon -- Some Traditional Reasons for Polygyny -- Some Preliminary Observations -- The Legal Situation in Cameroon -- Economic Factors of Polygyny -- Socio-Cultural Factors -- The Changing Climate -- Adverse Effects of Polygynous Unions -- Theological Concerns -- The PCC Context and the Need for a "Paradigm Shift" -- The PCC Policy Statements on Polygamous Marriage Arrangements -- Building on a New Premise: A Transformational Approach to the Question of Polygyny in the PCC -- Conclusion -- General Conclusion -- Notes -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Bibliography -- Index.