Q. I was very pleased to see Chapter 3. Some 30+ years ago I wrote a book entitled Jesus, Paul, and the End of the World comparing the eschatology of Jesus and Paul, and this chapter of yours fills out the picture in a broader way of Paul’s indebtedness to Jesus and the Jerusalem church in his theology and ethics. It seems we have finally gotten well past the legacy of Bousset and Bultmann, and I agree with you that... Read more

Q. I was glad to see you weigh in on the Jewishness of Paul’s thought world. In the old pendulum swing from Bultmann at one end of the spectrum and now Nanos, Fredricksen and others at the extreme other end of the spectrum I appreciate your attempt to delineate the ways Paul was both in accord with his Pharisaic faith tradition, and at odds with it in other respects. I myself have not been persuaded by our friend Tom Wright’s... Read more

Q. At the end of your first full chapter, you make the point that Paul’s telos or goal of moral formation determines the nature of his rhetoric. I would say it often determines the content of his rhetoric, but frankly does not explain its rhetorical form. I don’t think Paul saw himself as inventing new rhetorical tropes, arrangements, etc.  But the content is another matter. Here apocalyptic, prophetic speech come into play. Yes, the content is in-house content, but the... Read more

  With all the kudos, much of it deserved for Coach K at Duke, as he faces retirement, a few facts need to be taken into account so we are comparing With all the kudos, much of it deserved for Coach K at Duke, as he faces retirement, a few facts need to be taken into account so we are comparing apples to apples as we get ready for March Madness.  First of all, John Wooden has a greater record... Read more

Q.  You make an excellent point when you stress that Paul’s arguments only work for a sub section of society, a Christian community that already largely shares his presuppositions about Christ, theology, the OT. This is certainly true. But it is equally true of all other ancient rhetoric. The judicial discourses of Cicero before the Senate and elsewhere only work in the context of the acceptance of Roman law, and Roman customs. One then wonders how exactly Paul’s preaching made... Read more

Q. I wonder if you have read Bruce Winter’s monograph. Is Paul among the Sophists?  What Winter demonstrates, at least to my satisfaction is that Paul is not claiming he is not a rhetorician, he is claiming he is not like the orators of the 2nd Sophistic, who focused on mere verbal eloquence and flattery, overcome by the exuberance for their own verbosity.  Larry Welborn and others have rightly warned that the hints in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians have... Read more

The service begins about 5 minutes into the video.   This is my home church in Charlotte, N.C. Read more

Q. About the work de elocutione which as you say is falsely attributed to Demetrius, the recent scholarly work on that indicates that the work comes from the first century A.D. if not a bit later (see the monograph by Rhys Roberts). I mention this because I don’t think we have evidence for a handbook on writing various kinds of letters before the time of Paul.  In any case this development considerably post-dates the teaching of rhetoric and handbooks on... Read more

Q. You say that Paul offers a new sort of prophetic rhetoric. New in both form and content, or simply new in that it is a rhetoric with Christian content?  Can you explain what you mean a bit as we get going on this dialogue?   A. Although Paul’s facility with Greek and his upbringing in the diaspora acquaint him with good orators, many of his proofs would not have been persuasive outside the group because he speaks for God... Read more

Q. You say in the Introduction that theology and rhetoric are inseparable parts of Paul’s effort to convince or persuade his audience in regard to their behavior (and I would add in regard to various of their beliefs as well— e.g. about resurrection in 1 Cor. 15). I entirely agree with you about this— the goal is the moral transformation of the audience.  This also means that theology and ethics are also not neat discreet categories for Paul.  His ethics... Read more