Fraternal Love Put to the Test

This article on the Letter to Philemon focuses on the significant topic of slavery/freedom in the Greco-Roman world and the theological themes of fraternal love and authentic freedom in Jesus Christ. First, it presents a brief exposition of the letter’s occasion, place and date of composition, its sender, co-sender and addressees. Second, it displays and highlights the text’s exquisite epistolary and rhetorical composition and persuasive force. Third, it reveals the richness of this missive’s paradoxical and implicit theology, most especially Paul’s ethics, anthropology and ecclesiology. In his final considerations, the author offers some concluding reflections on the importance of fraternal love, Christian fraternity and the centrality of the ministry of reconciliation for the Apostle Paul both in Philemon (reconciliation between master and slave, now brothers in the Lord) and in Second Corinthians (reconciliation between the Corinthians and God, as well as between the opposing factions in their church), most especially in 2Cor 5:18-21.