epistles. They are a little more difficult, though not altogether impossible, to discern in, for example, poetic literature and narratives. Attempting to discern logical relationships between propositions (which some refer to as “discourse analysis”) is a way of (1) making explicit what we might otherwise assume, in order (2) to test whether our assumptions are correct or incorrect or in need of refinements, with the result that (3) our understanding of a text is strengthened as we trace out an author’s