Performanzkritik der Paulusbriefe

The Pauline epistles were recited to the recipients and their impact was felt in a collectively experienced event. Performance criticism attempts to capture the event for which the texts were created. Bernhard Oestreich's work is the first German monograph on this new method of biblical interpretation and actually the first performance criticism of the Pauline epistles. In the first chapter, the author begins by dealing with the roots of this approach to the text. He then defines performance and explains the method. In the following three chapters he tests this method, using the Pauline epistles and other early Christian epistles. In doing so, he shows how the speaker acts towards the recipients through these texts and provokes interaction among the audience. The Pauline epistles come to life as social events, their intentions become clearer and the understanding of them is enhanced.