The Slave Metaphor and Gendered Enslavement in Early Christian Discourse

This book adds new knowledge to the ongoing discussion of slavery in early Christian discourse. Kartzow argues that the complex tension between metaphor and social reality in early Christian discourse is undertheorized.

Introduction; Chapter 1: Thinking with Saleable Bodies: An Intersectional Approach to the Slavery Metaphor; Chapter 2: Embodying the Slavery Metaphor: Female Characters and Slavery Language; Chapter 3: Metaphor and Masculinity: The "no longer slave" Formulations (John 15:15 and Gal 4:7); Chapter 4: The Paradox of Slavery: All Believers Are Slaves of the Lord, but Some Are More Slaves Than Others; Chapter 5: From Slave of a Female Owner to Slave of God: Negotiating Gender, Sexuality and Status in The Shepherd of Hermas; Chapter 6: Jesus, the Slave Trader: Metaphor made real in The Act of Thomas; Conclusion; Index