CLOTHES MAKE THE (WO)MAN

  • Roy R. Jeal Booth College

Abstract

In the Pauline letters a new rhetorical aspect of body is presented with the imagery of being clothed with a person, with Christ or a new a[nqrwpo" (Gal 3:27; Rom 13:14; Col 3:10; Eph 4:24). While body and clothing imagery was well-known in the ancient Mediterranean world, the picture of putting on a person is new with these passages. Clothing has implications for movement and identification, but there is also interweaving between body, mind and clothing related to how humans present themselves, how they interact socially, how they are empowered morally and politically, and how they produce rhetorical and political discourse. This essay offers a socio-rhetorical interpretation of the texts that speak of being clothed with a person, considering the implications for those who become so clothed. This clothing refashions bodies with new religious, social and political roles. Refashioned bodies become agents of social change. The new clothing makes new persons and a new social reality.

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Published
2013-06-12
Section
Articles