04_Peters_copiaaa_67-84 28/04/15 12:15 Pagina 84 84 JANELLE PETERS the community at 4,1. Yet their characterization as being at odds with each other suggests that it is just such distinctions that Paul is trying to overcome in calling the community his crown. Paul’s placement of the Christian experience in the “bowels” of Christ fur- ther rearranges the distribution of honor in the body of Christ. The coronal imagery of 1 Corinthians both denies and lends the community honor. In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul eschews the current model of paideia in which the Corinthians would like to style them- selves. Admonishing the Corinthians for assuming elite status on the order of kings, Paul emphasizes that the highest role in the church, the apostle, mandates being led to the spectacle in a military triumph to be exhibited last as the “dregs” of society. Yet, a few chapters later, Paul builds on his claim that he is the father of these vain Corinthians with so many pedagogues by allowing the Corinthian Christians honors modeled on the system of paideia in place in Roman Corinth. The imperishable crown is of the same form as the perishable one; the difference between the two crowns is their dura- bility. Just as disciplining oneself for a prize one might not win is thought to yield cultural capital in the Roman colony of Corinth, so too is spiritual asceticism a worthwhile pursuit. University of Saint Francis Janelle PETERS Joliet, IL U.S.A. SUMMARY The image of the crown appears in 1 Thess 2,19, Phil 4,1, and 1 Cor 9,25. However, the crowns differ. While the community constitutes the apostle’s crown in 1 Thessalonians and Philippians, the crown in 1 Corinthians is one of communal contestation. In this paper, I compare the image of the crown in each of the letters. I argue that the crown in 1 Corinthians, available to all believers even at Paul’s expense, is the least hierarchical of the three crowns.