Metaphor and meaning in Christian moral discourse: The role of conceptual metaphor in the creation of meaning in Christian moral discourse, with 1 Peter as exemplar.

摘要

This study uses conceptual metaphor theory and methodology to analyze the cultural logic and symbolic context, moral content and ethical implications of 1 Peter and of the reading and interpretive process. Conceptual metaphor study helps explain how people generate ethical understandings; it can help us recognize and account for the moral discourse obtaining between the NT and contemporary readers. 1 Peter is an exemplar of Christian social ethical construction that grounds constructive moral discourse today.; Section A includes an historical overview targeting figures and trends that have special relevance to the conversation between biblical hermeneutics and constructive Christian ethics. Cognitive metaphor theory and methods are introduced and two hermeneutics of analogy approaches are presented and critiqued.; Section B is a methodological demonstration that deploys and tests conceptual metaphor methods. It provides a theoretical grounding, connecting conceptual metaphor study with cognitive understandings of the reading process. Then the findings of a conceptual metaphor analysis of 1 Peter are presented. These findings include The Moral Accounting system; metaphorical grounding of the construal of moral authority; and five metaphorical “living spaces” for moral conduct: in Christ, in time, in/among the peoples, in households, and in the body. A responsive review of the findings concludes the section.; 1 Peter's moral discourse makes sense for the original situation it addressed, but its meaning and significance is not confined to that “world.” In 1 Peter, the suffering, dying, and risen Christ brings kairos into chronos, creating an earthy, transcendent meaning space in the body, in ordinary households, and in broader geopolitical landscapes. Although the conceptual framework Peter uses is embedded in 1st -century cultural models, and these must be taken into account as reading and interpretation proceed, many of the primary metaphorical and metamoral concepts in the letter are effectively transcultural, and much is cross-culturally accessible, given adequate socio-cultural information.