Advances in the History of Rhetoric May 2017

Early Christian Rhetoric(s) In Situ

Cory Geraths Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an unprecedented number of Gnostic manuscripts were unearthed at sites across Egypt. Discovered on the Cairo antiquities market, in ancient trash heaps, and in buried jars, these papyri have radically refigured the landscape of early Christian history. Rhetoric, however, has overlooked the Gnostics. Long denigrated as heretical, Gnostic texts invite historians of rhetoric to (re)consider the role of gender in the early Church, the interplay between gnōsis and contemporary rhetorical concepts, and the
development of early Christian rhetorical practice(s) within diverse historical contexts, including the Second Sophistic. In response to recent calls for rhetorical archaeology, this essay returns to Cairo, Oxyrhynchus, and Nag Hammadi. These three locations refigure early Christian rhetoric(s) in situ.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2017-05-04
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2017.1325412
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classical rhetoric modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism gender and writing editorial matter
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