Performance Criticism of the Pauline Letters
Bernhard Oestreich
foreword by
Glenn S. Holland
translated by
Lindsay Elias
and
Brent Blum
Performance Criticism of the Pauline Letters
Biblical Performance Criticism Series 14
Copyright © 2016 Bernhard Oestreich. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Originally published in German as Performanzkritik der Paulusbriefe. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 296. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.
The translation was supported by the Theologische Hochschule Friedensau.
Cascade Books
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-9831-5
hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-4885-3
ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-9832-2
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Names: Oestreich, Bernhard, 1949–. | Elias, Lindsay. | Blum, Brent. | Holland, Glenn Stanfield, 1952–.
Title: Performance criticism of the Pauline letters / Bernhard Oestreich ; translated by Lindsay Elias and Brent Blum ; foreword by Glenn S. Holland.
Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016. | Series: Biblical Performance Criticism Series 14. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: isbn 978-1-4982-9831-5 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-4982-4885-3 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-4982-9832-2 (ebook).
Subjects: LCSH: Oral reading. | Performance in literature. | Letters. | Bible. N.T.—Performance criticism. | Bible. N.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Bible. Epistles of Paul.
Classification: BS2650.52 O37 2016 (print) | BS2650.52 (ebook).
Manufactured in the U.S.A.10/20/16
Biblical references are taken from the New American Standard Bible.® Copyright© 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation (www.Lockman.org). Used by permission.
Table of Contents
• Preface to the German Edition
• Preface to the English Translation
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Theory of Performance Criticism
• Chapter 2: Influencing Audience Interaction by Use of Letters
• Chapter 3: Strategies in Letter Writing to Achieve Reconciliation
• Chapter 4: Strategies in Letter Writing to Achieve Separation
Biblical Performance Criticism Series
Orality, Memory, Translation, Rhetoric, Discourse, Drama
David Rhoads, Holly E. Hearon, and Kelly R. Iverson, Series Editors
The ancient societies of the Bible were overwhelmingly oral. People originally experienced the traditions now in the Bible as oral performances. Focusing on the ancient performance of biblical traditions enables us to shift academic work on the Bible from the mentality of a modern print culture to that of an oral/scribal culture. Conceived broadly, biblical performance criticism ...
|
About Performance Criticism of the Pauline LettersReceiving 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. |
| Support Info | 9781498298322 |