Aune also talks about other topoi in the hortatory sections of Paul's letter such as, in Romans 13, authority, paying tribute, love, the eschatological hour; and, in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-5:11, love of the brethren, the fate of the Christian dead, and on times and seasons.An important but neglected subject is the identification and comparative study of epistolary topoi i.e., the themes and constituent motifs used in ancient letters ... the most common topoi include (1) letter writing; (2) health; (3) business; (4) domestic events; (5) reunion with adressee(s); and government matters.
Aune, David Edward (1988) The New Testament in Its Literary Environment; James Clarke & Co., p. 189
Epistolary Topoi
Epistolary Topoi
Last edited by MrMacSon on Wed Apr 06, 2016 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Epistolary Topoi
Judith M. Lieu (2016) Letters and the Topography of Early Christianity New Testament Studies 62(2); pp. 167-182
Abstract
While embedded in contemporary letter-writing conventions, early Christian letters were also instrumental in the creation of a distinctive Christian world-view. Fundamental to letters of all types, ‘real’ and fictional, is that they respond to, and hence negotiate and seek to overcome, actual and imagined spatial and temporal distance between author and recipient(s). In practice and as cultural symbols, letters, sent and transmitted in new contexts, as well as letter collections, produced in the Christian imagination new trans-locational and cross-temporal dynamics of relationality that can be mapped onto the standard epistolary topoi – ‘absent as if present’, half a conversation, a mirror of the soul.
Abstract
While embedded in contemporary letter-writing conventions, early Christian letters were also instrumental in the creation of a distinctive Christian world-view. Fundamental to letters of all types, ‘real’ and fictional, is that they respond to, and hence negotiate and seek to overcome, actual and imagined spatial and temporal distance between author and recipient(s). In practice and as cultural symbols, letters, sent and transmitted in new contexts, as well as letter collections, produced in the Christian imagination new trans-locational and cross-temporal dynamics of relationality that can be mapped onto the standard epistolary topoi – ‘absent as if present’, half a conversation, a mirror of the soul.