I will be presenting a paper this next week on the Philippians Hymn (2:5-11) as an early mimetic Christological model of Christian Leadership at the annual Servant Leadership Research Roundtable in Virginia Beach. A draft version of the introduction of the paper reads as follows:
The myriad scholarly discussions on the Christological hymn (compare the excellent overview of the research in Martin 1997) in the letter of Paul to the Philippians (2:5-11) have traditionally been occupied with the issues of ontological Christology (Hellerman 2003, 424), questions on authorship (Martin 1997, 42-62) and literary form and function (Black, 1995) with little or no agreement amongst scholars on these issues (Stagg 1980, 340). Recent studies have attempted to escape the inertia created in these studies by exploring the hymn as an ethical rhetorical device and paradigm (Fowl 1990, Geoffrion 1993), as mediating tool in the midst of communal disunity and strife (Peterlin 1995, Williams 2002), as social drama (Karris, 1996, Wortham 1996), and as resistance against local timocratic rule (Heen 2004, Hellerman 2003, and Oakes 2001). What these recent developments have in common is a determined effort to place the hymn within the social and cultural context of first-century Philippi and the consensus that the hymn is a religious response to the tyranny of local Roman ruler and leadership. This opens the door for scholars to explore the hymn as an exemplary model (a rhetorical exampla) of ethical leadership rooted in a mimetic Christological spirituality. This paper proposes an early mimetic Christological model of Christian Leadership in Philippi by exploring the judicial, rhetorical structure and the social function of the hymn as a cursus pudorum (course of ignominies).
Bibliography (of the draft version of the introduction):
Black, D. A. 1995. The Discourse Structure of Philippians: A Study in Text-linguistics. Novum Testamentum XXXVII, 1: 16-49.
Fowl, S. E. 1990. The Story of Christ in the Ethics of Paul: An analysis of the Function of the Hymnic Material in the Pauline Corpus. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Geoffrion, T. C. 1993. The Rhetorical Purpose and the Political and Military Character of Philippians. Lewiston: Mellen Biblical Press.
Heen, E. M. 2004. Phil 2:6-11 and Resistance to local Timocratic Rule: Isa Theo and the Cult of the Emperor in the East, in Horsely, R. A. Paul and the Roman Imperial Order. New York: Trinity Press International.
Hellerman, J. H. 2003. The Humiliation of Christ in the Social World of Roman Philippi, Part 1. Bibliotheca Sacra 160.639:321-336.
Hellerman, J. H. 2003. The Humiliation of Christ in the Social World of Roman Philippi, Part 1. Bibliotheca Sacra 160.640:421-433.
Karris, R. J. 1996. A Symphony of New Testament Hymns. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press.
Martin, R. P. 1997. A Hymn of Christ: Philippians 2:5-11 in Recent Interpretation and in the setting of Early Christian Worship. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press.
Oakes, P. 2001. Philippians: From People to Letter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peterlin, D. 1995. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians in the Light of Disunity in the Church. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Stagg, F. 1980. The Mind of Christ Jesus: Philippians 1:27-2:18. Review and Expositor 77.3:337.
Williams, D. K. 2002. Enemies of the Cross of Christ: The Terminology of the Cross and Conflict in Philippians. London: Sheffield Academic Press.
Wortham, R. A. 1996. Christology a Community Identity in the Philippians Hymn: The Philippians Hymn as Social Drama (Philippians 2:5-11). Perspectives in Religious Studies 23:3: 269- 287.
For more information see: http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/conferences/roundtable/home.htm
