Paul the letter-writer : his world, his options, his skills /
Jerome Murphy-O'Connor.
- Collegeville, Minn. : Liturgical Press, 1995.
- viii, 152 pages ; 21 cm.
- Good News Studies 41 .
"A Michael Glazier book."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-144) and indexes.
Putting Pen to Paper -- Tools of a Writer's Trade -- Paul Used a Secretary -- First-Century Secretaries and Their Skills -- Recorder -- Editor -- Substitute Author -- Collaborators as Coauthors 1 and 2 Thessalonians -- First Corinthians -- Second Corinthians -- The Ï"Sections -- The "We" Sections -- 2 Cor 10-13 -- Other Letters -- Co-authorship in Practice -- A Pauline Style? -- Note-Takers and Church Tradition -- Sending a Letter -- Organizing a Letter -- Letters or Epistles? -- Address -- Sender -- Recipient -- To a Church -- To the Members of a Church -- To Individuals -- Opening Greeting -- Thanksgiving -- Greek Papyrus Letters -- The Forms of the Thanksgiving -- Thanksgivings in the Body of the Letter -- The Absence of a Thanksgiving -- Thanksgivings as Introductions -- The Body of the Letter -- Rhetorical Criticism of Letter -- The Three Types of Oratory -- The Rhetorical Classification of the Pauline Letters -- The Components of a Deliberative Speech -- Exordium -- Narratio -- Digressio -- Propositio -- Confirmatio -- Peroratio -- The Rhetorical Schema Applied to the Pauline Letters -- Misuse of the Rhetorical Schema -- The Importance of the Propositio -- Concentrically Structured Documents -- COncentrically Structured Parts of Documents -- Epistolary Classification of Letters -- Conclusion -- The Final Blessing -- Greetings -- The Position of the Greeting -- The Source of the Greeting -- The Recipients of the Greeting -- Greeting with the Kiss -- The Peace Wish -- Postscripts -- Collecting the Letters -- The Evolutionary Theory -- The Big Bang Theory -- Was Paul Involved? --The Order and Length of the Letters -- The Order of the Letters
How did Paul use his secretaries? Did he rely on co-authors? Did his rhetorical education affect the way he organized his material? This unusual book confronts these questions on the basis of extensive quotations from classical Greek and Latin authors. A synoptic survey of the beginnings and ends of the letters brings out the extent to which Paul both used and adapted current epistolary conventions. At the same time it draws attention to his mood while writing and to his relations with the recipients. The effect is to humanize the Pauline letters and make their complex theology less daunting.
0814658458
94011566
Bible.--Epistles of Paul--Criticism, interpretation, etc.