Much historical-critical work on the opponents in the Pastoral Epistles has resulted
in sweeping generalisations concerning their Jewish and/or Gnostic nature. Literary
analyses have been somewhat more promising in focusing on the stereotypical nature
of the polemic but either fail to do justice to the urgency of the language in the
Pastorals or fail to provide a convincing description of the opponents. This thesis
approaches the problem of the opponents from a social-scientific perspective.
Utilising labelling theory and social control theory from the sociology of deviance,
the thesis argues that the Pastorals function as a literary version of a status
degradation ceremony whereby previously influential insiders within the
communities addressed are transformed into outsiders.
Following a survey of approaches to the problem of institutionalisation, the
thesis argues that the scholarly consensus (that the Pastorals reflect the
institutionalisation of initially charismatic Pauline communities) needs to be revised.
It suggests a developmental model for charismatic communities which involves both
the process of institutionalisation and the simultaneous, thaumaturgical subversion of
that process. This model arises out of the sociological analysis of the development of
a contemporary charismatic community and it is argued that developments in the
second century CE church, particularly the rise of Montanism, yield results which
are consistent with this model. The thesis examines the Pastorals in the light of this
developmental model and argues that they reflect a power struggle within the
communities between those who advocate an ecstatic spirituality rooted in the
memory of a thaumaturgical Paul and the author, who appeals to Pauline tradition
and sees Paul as primarily a great teacher
