Abstract
This volume brings together in published form sixteen essays originally presented at a conference held at the University of Erlangen-Nuremburg in 2023. The essays coalesce around the role and function of argumentation in 1 Clement. Here the contributors analyse the various argumentative strategies in the text, in particular considering how such rhetorical techniques function to motivate a desired course of action among those being addressed.
The first chapter by David du Toit forms an introduction to the volume as a whole. It is noted that soon after the initial publication of the text in the seventeenth century, scholars recognized 1 Clement as a text that presented an argument aimed at guiding the recipients to a certain course of action. However, subsequent to that early perspective, du Toit draws attention to the lack of focus on the argumentative character of the text. Next, Larry Welborn argues that the purpose of the argument of 1 Clement was to bring about res publica restituta, that is a restoration of the previous state of affairs in the community in Christ-Community in Corinth. It is noted that this motif is ‘shared with literary presentations of Augustus’ reign’ (p. 28), and that one of the consequences of this form of argument is that ‘Clement’s authoritarian conception of communal governance came to dominate catholic Christianity’ (p. 32). In a later chapter Kathrin Hager considers the way the idea of ‘gift’ functions in the text (pp. 57-80). The primary observation is that ‘[a]s recipients of God’s many benefactions, the citizens of his polis must prove themselves worthy of these gifts by their behavior’ (p. 77). In chapter six, Cilliers Breytenbach considers the example of Cain’s fratricide as functioning aetiologically in the wider argument. It is noted by creating a continuity between the jealousy exhibited in the Corinthian community and actions of Cain that the author presents strong reason to move away from anger and jealousy and instead to focus on peace and concord (p. 123). A pair of chapters by David du Toit (pp. 236-258) and Harry Maier (pp. 259-274) both draw attention to spatial features in the text. Thus, du Toit suggestion that the purpose of the restoration of the ekklēsia is to recreate it as a salvific space (p. 257). Harry Maier looks more broadly at spatio-rhetorical features in the text. It is concluded that ‘the rhetorical construction of space and time in 1 Clement is central to its strategies of persuasion. Clement places his audience in scenes of civic concord and division’ (p. 272).
There are numerous fine essays in this volume. Together they function as an important contribution to understanding the argumentative purpose of 1 Clement, and this collection will prove an important contribution to scholarship of this perennially fascinating text.