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Performance criticism of the Pauline letters / Bernhard Oestreich ; foreword by Glenn S. Holland ; translated by Lindsay Elias and Brent Blum.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Biblical performance criticism ; 14.Publisher: Oregon, Eugene : Cascade Books, [2016]Description: 1 online resource (xx, 345 pages .)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781498298322
  • 149829832X
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Performance criticism of the Pauline letters.DDC classification:
  • 227/.06 23
LOC classification:
  • BS2650.52 .O47 2016
Other classification:
  • online - EBSCO
Online resources:
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: 1. Theory of Performance Criticism -- History of the Method -- Essence of Performance -- Methodology of Performance Criticism -- 2. Influencing Audience Interaction by Use of Letters -- Addressing a Divided Audience -- Singling out Individual Listeners -- Focusing on the Reader as Communications Medium -- 3. Strategies in Letter Writing to Achieve Reconciliation -- Controversy in Rome over Diet (Romans 14:1 -- 15:13) -- Instituting Friendship (Plato, Sixth Letter) -- Establishing Peace after Unrest (Claudius to the Alexandrians) -- Tensions in Corinth Due to Spiritual Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:3) -- Relationship of the Leaders to Those Being Led -- 4. Strategies in Letter Writing to Achieve Separation -- Winning Back the Listeners (Galatians) -- Expelling the Opponents (First Letter of Clement) -- Summary and Perspectives.
Summary: Receiving a letter from Paul was a major event in the early churches. Given the orally oriented culture of the time, a letter was designed to be read out loud in front of an audience. The document was an intermediate state for the local transport of the message, but the actual medium of communication was the performance event. This event was embedded in the written text in a manner comparable to a theater script. After careful preparation because of high expectations from ancient audiences, a presenter embodied the message with his voice, gazes, and gestures and made it not only understood but jointly experienced. After presenting a short history of performance criticism, this book clarifies what is meant by the highly ambiguous term "performance" and develops steps to analyze ancient texts in order to find and understand the embedded signals of performance. This leads to a critical assessment of the potential of performance criticism as a method. Then, the method is applied to the Pauline Epistles and other early Christian letters. It proves to be highly rewarding: difficult passages become comprehensible, new aspects come to light, the text's impact on the audience is felt--in short, the texts come alive.

Receiving a letter from Paul was a major event in the early churches. Given the orally oriented culture of the time, a letter was designed to be read out loud in front of an audience. The document was an intermediate state for the local transport of the message, but the actual medium of communication was the performance event. This event was embedded in the written text in a manner comparable to a theater script. After careful preparation because of high expectations from ancient audiences, a presenter embodied the message with his voice, gazes, and gestures and made it not only understood but jointly experienced. After presenting a short history of performance criticism, this book clarifies what is meant by the highly ambiguous term "performance" and develops steps to analyze ancient texts in order to find and understand the embedded signals of performance. This leads to a critical assessment of the potential of performance criticism as a method. Then, the method is applied to the Pauline Epistles and other early Christian letters. It proves to be highly rewarding: difficult passages become comprehensible, new aspects come to light, the text's impact on the audience is felt--in short, the texts come alive.

Print version record.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Theory of Performance Criticism -- History of the Method -- Essence of Performance -- Methodology of Performance Criticism -- 2. Influencing Audience Interaction by Use of Letters -- Addressing a Divided Audience -- Singling out Individual Listeners -- Focusing on the Reader as Communications Medium -- 3. Strategies in Letter Writing to Achieve Reconciliation -- Controversy in Rome over Diet (Romans 14:1 -- 15:13) -- Instituting Friendship (Plato, Sixth Letter) -- Establishing Peace after Unrest (Claudius to the Alexandrians) -- Tensions in Corinth Due to Spiritual Gifts (1 Corinthians 12:3) -- Relationship of the Leaders to Those Being Led -- 4. Strategies in Letter Writing to Achieve Separation -- Winning Back the Listeners (Galatians) -- Expelling the Opponents (First Letter of Clement) -- Summary and Perspectives.