Assembly, Rhetoric, and Widespread Community: Mass Communication in Paul of Tarsus
This article claims that Paul of Tarsus is a significant figure in the history and theory of mass communication. Drawing on his letters to the Corinthians and other early groups of Christ-followers, I argue that Paul used eloquent mediated rhetoric to conceptualize local ritual practice in such a wa...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
[2003]
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| In: |
Journal of media and religion
Year: 2003, Volume: 2, Issue: 3, Pages: 165-182 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | This article claims that Paul of Tarsus is a significant figure in the history and theory of mass communication. Drawing on his letters to the Corinthians and other early groups of Christ-followers, I argue that Paul used eloquent mediated rhetoric to conceptualize local ritual practice in such a way that it could form the basis for widespread solidarity and mass community in a geographically expanding religious sect. This was a form of mass communication centered in dispersed bodily assemblies and radiating outward to encompass ever wider regions of a distended mass society. It hinged on the Body of Christ, which in Paul's letters became a space- and time-binding medium of mass communication that held together a dispersed society of the Christ-proclaiming faithful. Paul was essentially an early medium theorist, and I argue that his bifocal attention to local assembly and distant solidarity is instructive for both the study and social practices of mass communication today. |
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| ISSN: | 1534-8415 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of media and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1207/S15328415JMR0203_03 |