The paper proposes that an adequate historical-critical understanding of the Pastoral Epistles -- 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus -- can be advanced by using sensitizing concepts from the labelling theory variant of symbolic interactionism. In the three epistles, the technique of the "status degradation ceremony" is seen to transform previously influential Christian insiders into outsiders.
I am interested in the nature of the opposition encountered in the Pastoral Epistles, agreeing with ...