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IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 1508: Texts and Identities, V: Classical Rhetoric and Christian Communities

Thursday 14 July 2011, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Organisers:Gerda Heydemann, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien
Irene van Renswoude, Instituut voor Theologisch en Godsdienstwetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Universiteit Utrecht
Moderator/Chair:Mayke de Jong, Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht
Paper 1508-a'There was a time speech was my life': Silence and Self-Reflection in Christian Rhetoric
(Language: English)
Irene van Renswoude, Instituut voor Theologisch en Godsdienstwetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Universiteit Utrecht
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Monasticism, Rhetoric
Paper 1508-bThe Preacher in the City: The Urban Environment and the Virtual Space of Late Antique Homilies
(Language: English)
Hildegund Müller, Department of Classics, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Rhetoric, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 1508-cMeditations in an Emergency: Rhetoric and Politics in Cassiodorus' Commentary to the Psalms
(Language: English)
Gerda Heydemann, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien
Index terms: Biblical Studies, Political Thought, Rhetoric
Abstract

This session will investigate the process of adaptation by which late antique Christian church leaders and preachers (between 400 and 600) appropriated the rich tradition of classical rhetoric and transformed it into a tradition of their own. The papers explore the field of tension between classical rhetoric as a public, oral art of persuasion and late antique Christian culture with its emphasis on private contemplation and meditation of Holy Scripture. How did the tools of classical rhetorical analysis benefit the Christian practice of exegesis? What role did rhetoric play within monastic communities where silence took precedence over speech? How did preachers redefine public space as part of the Christian civitas? The papers in this session will suggest that, contrary to what has often been said, the art of rhetoric did not lose its social and political function with the beginning of the Middle Ages, but was instrumental for the process of building Christian communities and essential for thinking about politics and the right administration of a Christian society.