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In the urban settings of Paul's ministry, slaves he encountered were likely to be engaged in a variety of occupations, from production of commodities to bookkeeping to domestic service. Because slaves were sexual property, a slaveholder had the right to force a slave into prostitution, and indeed, most prostitutes were slaves. In 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians, Paul decries porneia, or sexual immorality, but he does not define porneia. Slaves were not in a position to protect the sexual boundaries of their bodies, a limitation that requires us either to reconsider the receptivity of the Christian body to slaves or to reformulate our understanding of expectations for sexual purity among the membership of Pauline churches.

Chapter 7 is the first chapter in part C of the book, “Erotic Intimacy with Christ and the Maturation of Desire,” which sees the aging bishop, in the late phase of his literary career, retreat from ecclesiastical affairs and focus more intensely than ever before on the implications of diachronic progress in the spiritual life. Chapter 7 examines the expanded meaning of virginity: it now denotes purity of heart in a general moral sense and can therefore be applied to Christians who are married—as long as their desires are chastened and transformed through the practices of prayer and virtue. Gregory, at this point in his literary career, regards any form of sin (hamartia) as an act of spiritual infidelity against Christ, the incorruptible Bridegroom. The parthenia/porneia disjunction is therefore used to contrast the life of virtue and the life of vice (more generally understood), not simply sexual abstinence and sexual vice. Gregory also applies the theme of maturation to the conjugal life—a point so far overlooked in the secondary literature—which provides new insights into his understanding of the order (taxis) of love in the life of virtue. The chapter ends with a detailed elucidation of Gregory’s diachronically theorized account of spiritual maturation (which highlights the essential incorporation of erotic desire in the practice of contemplation) and examines his on bodily development (especially enfeeblement in old age).

This chapter maintains that two ideologies concerning marriage and sex pervade the New Testament writings. One ideology codifies a narrative that argues against marriage, and perhaps, sexual intercourse, and the other retains the basic cultural values of the upper classes of the Greco-Roman world. These two ideologies are termed “profamily” and “antifamily.” The chapter proceeds in a chronological fashion starting with 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, and Mark. It concludes by examining Matthew, Luke, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla.