The two letters to the Corinthians comprise all that remains of a fuller correspondence that passed between Paul and the church at Corinth within five or six years after he founded it. They throw an exceptionally clear light on the problems of planting Christianity in the pagan soil of a prosperous commercial community which was proud of its intellectual attainment and its emancipation from out of date ethical taboos. They also afford rare insight into the mind of Paul himself, and into the true essence of apostolic ministry. Sex and homosexuality are but two of the topics with which Paul deals in these letters. The Corinthian church was beset by such temptations, and Paul gives guidance on a wide range of moral problems.