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The Beginnings of Church Discipline: 1 Corinthians 5
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
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Since the rise of the interdisciplinary approach to the study of Christian origins in the 1970s, little attention has been given to the problem of social control within the early church. This is true although control issues arose early in the Christian movement and have continued throughout Christian history. Before 1970 scholars treated the problem historically and theologically under the topic of discipline. Among scholars who utilize the social sciences in their approach to Christian origins, there are some scattered materials on internal social control but little direct, sustained investigation.
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References
1 A notable example of the historical approach is the chapter on discipline by Goguel, M. in The Primitive Church (New York: Macmillan, 1964) 224–46.Google Scholar An example of a theological approach is the essay by Lampe, G. W. H., ‘Church Discipline and the Interpretation of the Epistles to the Corinthians’, Christian History and Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox (ed. Farmer, W. R., Moule, C. F. D., Niebuhr, R. R.; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1967) 337–61.Google Scholar For bibliography on earlier studies, see Forkman, G., The Limits of the Religious Community: Expulsion from the Religious Community within the Qumran Sect, within Rabbinic Judaism, and within Primitive Christianity (Lund, Sweden: CWK Gleerup, 1972) 10–11.Google Scholar
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7 My translation. Biblical quotations are from the RSV unless otherwise indicated.
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62 See Weber, M., The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (Oxford: University Press, 1947) 129; see also 154.Google Scholar
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