Symbolic Goods as Media of Exchange in Paul’s Gift Economy

Abstract

Using the concept of the “economy of symbolic goods” developed by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this chapter shows how Paul construes linguistic “goods,” in the form of promises and assurances of gifts and benefits posited as proceeding from the god of Israel, as exchangeable with currency, material goods, and labor services within an ethic of reciprocity. Seneca the Younger uses the image of the dancing Graces to illustrate reciprocity. Paul’s letters indicate that he construes a benefit (charis) from the god of Israel as eliciting a countergift, whether in the mode of “paying it forward” by donating to a collection for the early Christian assembly in Jerusalem, or by “repaying” Paul himself through granting him the use of a slave, Onesimus.