Early Christian Paraenesis in Context

An up-to-date discussion of early Christian paraenesis in its Graeco-Roman and Hellenistic Jewish contexts in the light of one hundred years of scholarship, issuing from a research project by Nordic and international scholars.

The concept of paraenesis is basic to New Testament scholarship but hardly anywhere else. How is that to be explained? The concept is also, notoriously, without any agreed-upon definition and it is even contested. Can it at all be salvaged? This volume reassesses the scholarly discussion of paraenesis - both the concept and the phenomenon - since Paul Wendland and Martin Dibelius and argues for a number of ways in which it may continue to be fruitful.

Troels Engberg-Pedersen is Professor of New Testament at the Faculty of Theology, Copenhagen University, Denmark. James M. Starr is Lecturer of Exegetic Theology (New Testament) at Johannelund Theological Seminary, Uppsala, Sweden.

"The introduction and the seventeen essays that comprise this volume result in a rich insight into the concept of paraenesis both in early Christianity and as a part of the wider cultural milieu in which this new religious movement developed. The editors' introduction is invaluable, orienting readers to the most recent and significant discussions surrounding this topic. [...] This is a significant volume that both summarizes recent discussions and advances the debate surrounding the definition of paraenesis and the use of this rhetorical category in the New Testament and the wider cultural environment."
Paul Foster in: Expository Times 5 /2006

"[...] ist in dem Band umfangreiche philologische Arbeit geleistet worden. Der Problemkreis von protreptischer bzw. exhortatorischer Rede und die Frage, wieweit und in welcher Weise Paränese als literarische Subgattung oder als intentionale oder inhaltliche Größe in diesem Zusammenhang zu verstehen sei, werden gründlich, weiträumig und z. T. mit überraschenden Ergebnissen ausgeleuchtet."
Oda Wischmeyer in: Theologische Literaturzeitung 12/2005