In this close reading of Second Corinthians and examination of prevailing attitudes toward death in Greco-Roman Corinth, Richard I. Deibert proposes Paul's physical mortality as the window through which to understand both the mystery of his collapsing authority in Corinth and the heart of his gospel. In his own experience of physical dying, Paul experiences the 'deadness' of the resurrected Jesus, which paradoxically communicates life to him and through him to his congregations. Paul discovers that death has been transfigured into a source of life and, consequently, that human mortality has been infused with saving power. This study of human mortality clarifies, both for Paul's day and for our own, how crucial it is to guard the human person as an inseparable unity of body and soul, and to keep theology grounded in experience. Richard I. Deibert's work is of vital interest not only to students of early Christian and New Testament history, but also to students of anthropology, philosophy, and theology.

Born 1958; 1980 BA in Religion at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina; 1984 MD at University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida; 1985 Internship in Medicine and Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia; 1989 MDiv at Columbia Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia; 2005 PhD in New Testament, University of Cambridge; ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), with Eastern Orthodox leanings; served churches in Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida; currently practicing hospice and palliative care medicine for the dying with Tidewell Hospice in southwest Florida.