Antoinette CLARK. 2 Corinthians: Wisdom Commentary, Volume 48, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press (Michael Glazier Book), 2019. Pp 329, $36.99 ISBN 9780814681725 (hardcover). Reviewed by James ZEITZ, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas 48207.

            Antoinette Clark, professor emerita of New Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, in her “Author’s Introduction,” answers the question: “what is a feminist commentary” by citing 2 Cor 2:16: ‘Who is Adequate for These Things:” She is writing for “ a “small group of people, women and men, who are preparing to teach or preach Paul’s 2 Corinthians… and have sought out a feminist perspective.” (xlvii)  Her methodology will be a “feminist lens”  which “sharpens vision (of Paul’s letter) at three different ranges:” first: a “broad focus—what the text says about the reality of all bodies … or “ecosystem within a functioning universe;” secondly, a focus on the “specific social, political, and economic world in which the broad reality of life and death occur; thirdly, a “close-up range that focuses on the letter as Paul’s move to accomplish something.” (xlix)

            Her “Author’s Introduction” also addresses the problem of whether 2 Corinthians is one letter or many, in particular because of the sharp contrast of 2 Cor 10-13 (where Paul attacks his opponents) and chapters 1-9 (Paul’s conciliatory remarks about an opponent and the collection for Jerusalem 2 Cor 8-9). Citing a growing number who find the partition theories unnecessary, she gives eight reasons for reading 2 Corinthians as a single letter: The fourth reason, for example, is that the call to donate for Jerusalem (in 2 Cor 8-9) comes after he has pleaded for the Corinthians’ support after he charges them to be devoted to God alone (6:14-7:1). The fifth reason is that Chapters 10-13, where Paul attacks his opponents in Corinth, prepares for his future arrival in Corinth.

            Throughout, Clark comments in various parts of the commentary on Paul’s changed tone in 2 Corinthians from 1 Corinthians (written a year earlier). For example, she notes Paul’s attitude towards Corinthian women prophets, who had been restricted in 1 Corinthians, now seem to be accepted. The tensions between Paul and the community in 2 Corinthians—now “far greater—suggests that his instructions in 1 Corinthians have not been followed and the women prophets have continued their independent lives and uncovered worship leadership.” 2 Corinthians does not repeat or allude to his earlier instructions, which “indicates he has changed his approach to them: now he defends himself according to their values, affirming Christ’s risen life … revealed in them.” (p.224) Instead of giving advice about the Corinthians’ conduct (in 1 Corinthians), Paul now talks about his own conduct: his claims of integrity before God and goodwill toward the Corinthians (“Afterword”: p. 285).

            Clark briefly addresses Paul as a misogynist (e.g. his metaphor of himself as father of a community betrothed to Christ tempted to desert him as Eve was tempted by the snake” (p.227). But she gives detailed analysis of Paul’s rhetoric in 2 Corinthians—in defending his weakness, how it functions “in his interaction with the Corinthians to show their different understandings both of weakness and of power.” (250) Paul’s weakness (“So I delight in weaknesses…” 12:10) include comments on his claim to be an apostle (not as a “hierarchical relation” as in 1 Corinthians, but as “one among other agents of Christ” but as the one who founded the community) and how he understands “grace” (“strength given from outside the grip of gift exchange that empowers those who realize they are…responders.” (256) Overall, this letter “aims to recover Paul’s earlier intimacy with a community (1:1-7:16), to get them to join in a collection for Jerusalem (8:1-9:15), and to disabuse them of his competitors in Corinth (10:1-13:13). (p.264)

Clark has also presented the “address of this letter to a Jewish messianic sect in a once-Greek city destroyed by Rome and reclaimed as a Roman colony and provincial capital” (p.286) In her “afterward” she also asks what 2 Corinthians can contribute to our grasp of the eco-structure in which we live. “Can we step back before modern optimism about ‘man’ controlling ‘nature’ to find resources for seeing ourselves as agents among the myriad and interacting agencies of all animal, plant and mineral life?”  Her answer: “Paul attributes all good to God’s Spirit that animates and transforms the world from within…What God’s Spirit does Paul also calls ‘grace.’” (288)

            My overall assessment of this commentary: it is different from other “Wisdom” commentaries in presenting the larger context of Paul’s world, with a very detailed analysis of Paul’s rhetoric—to explain his changed attitude towards the Corinthians, since writing 1 Corinthians Recommended mainly for scholars or upper-division courses on Paul.