with the observation that the new birth distances people first of all from their old, culturally shaped self and in this way from the world. This logic is what the metaphor of new birth suggests and is also what 1 Peter explicitly states: “you were ransomed from your futile ways inherited from your ancestors” (1:18). What permeates the epistle is not a fixation on distance from the world, but enthusiasm about the eschatological future. It is Christian identity that creates difference from the social