The Church as Family of God in the Pauline Corpus

Abstract

This idea was received in the African Churches as an innovation. Indeed, it was an innovation for African Christians who were exploring new ways of being followers of Christ in a particular context. Is there any biblical foundation to the family model of the Church? This is a question we intend to tackle in this paper by investigating the concept of the Church as God’s family in the Pauline corpus, especially in those letters undisputedly attributed to Paul.2 Did Paul conceive the Church as family of God? If yes, what did it mean for him?
An analysis of the Pauline family terminology followed by the exploration of its implications in terms of meanings and values, will constitute the main articulations of this investigation.