Paul ' s Use of the Analogy of the

THE subject of the church as the Body of Christ in Pauline theology is one which has received a great deal of attention and has produced a wide divergence in views1• As a consequence, this essay cannot hope either to summarize the work done in this area or to enter into detailed debate with the various positions that have been adopted. We shall approach the problem from the perspectives of how Paul uses the Body of Christ as an analogy and whether more than an analogy is implied. In doing this our emphasis will be on understanding Paul's use of the Body of Christ concept in the context of his letters and against the background of the situation of the churches to which he was writing. As the analogy is worked out most fully in 1 Corinthians 12, this provides a suitable focus for discussion. As Ruef notes2, the two main poles around which the debate about the Body of Christ concept in Paul has taken place are, on the one hand, that it is a key, if not the key, in Paul's theology), and, on the other, that it is not a key term but one of four terms which Paul uses to describe the unity of the church4• Nelson puts it thus: "According to the nature of one's interpretation of the New Testament language and theology, the Body of Christ is either a very suggestive, though often limited and misleading, metaphor, or else it is the name of a supernatural entity, possessing both human and divine nature, which is related to Christ in a way which may be called