Date of Award
Fall 1994
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Stockhausen, Carol
Abstract
The following study began as a paper for Dr. Carol Stockhausen in a graduate seminar at Marquette University on Colossians and Ephesians. At that time, I was somewhat proficient at the method I now call "epistolary criticism," which I summarized and introduced to the class in several papers. My dissertation grew naturally out of my background research in that field. Dr. Stockhausen challenged me, however, to go beyond epistolary considerations and incorporate classical rhetoric, a subject about which at the time I knew next to nothing. I am especially grateful to her for that challenge. The result is the combined epistolary and rhetorical analysis of Ephesians presented here. Though the task is sometimes daunting, I am now completely convinced of the need for scholars to use multiple literary and historical methods in the analysis of New Testament literature, and I offer the following study as an example of the compatibility and effectual conjunction of these two disciplines. The length and thoroughness of my presentation grows out of a basic personal and methodological (== a tenet of both epistolary and rhetorical criticism) assumption, namely, the literary and historical coherence of New Testament literature as a communicative tool for effecting lives in the early church.