Razing Hair: A Sarcastic Reimagining of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16

by Douglas Van Dorn

For over twenty years, pastor and author Douglas Van Dorn avoided preaching 1 Corinthians—its conundrums, factionalism, and bizarre debates made it feel inexplicable. Then a single verse in Acts (18:18) began to change all Paul cuts his hair right after leaving Corinth, where he had worn it long during his entire ministry there. This glaring contradiction with 1 Cor 11:14 (“long hair… a disgrace”) cracked open the passage.

In Razing Hair, Van Dorn argues that Paul is not delivering transcendent rules about head coverings, hair length, or gender hierarchy. Those are issues of "disputable matters" and Christian liberty. He is being sarcastic—mocking the Corinthians’ obsession with outward appearances, cultural propriety, and contentious debates while their church is imploding morally. Only the core theological affirmations (Christ as head, mutual interdependence, God as ultimate covering) are spoken straight-faced; the rest skewers the vanity of these Christians with biting irony.

Drawing on Paul’s Nazirite vow and the cultural backdrop of Corinth (including Aphrodite’s mirror-shield statue and the city’s mirror industry), Van Dorn offers a fresh, provocative reading that sidesteps modern egalitarian-complementarian wars. Instead, it recenters the text on the real love, unity, and inward integrity over superficial primping.

Short, accessible, and unapologetically bold, Razing Hair invites readers to laugh uncomfortably at Corinthian folly—and to see their own. Paul’s sarcasm still has the last laugh.

180 pages, Paperback

Published February 4, 2026