(Bild-)Rhetorik des Gesprächs: Zur Emblematik des Alltags in Sigmund von Birkens Gottseeliger Gespräch-Lust

Johann Anselm Steiger

doi:10.1515/rhet.2015.007

Abstract

In the newly published, critical edition of Birken’s handwritten manuscript, Birken inserts fictitious conversations that contain sacred poetry and prayers to God. This text, which belongs to a new genre of »exercises in sacred conversation« (»geistlichem Gesprächspiel«), serves the praxis pietatis in which the public proclamation of God’s Word is appropriated to private meditation. The added value of this conversational form is not only that it serves to edify, but also that it allows thoughts to freely fall into the mind that otherwise would not. Birken makes it clear that in conversation the Holy Spirit makes Himself known 1) within the plurality of interlocution, as well as 2) in the intensified form of the conversation, so that the presence of God is realized among the interlocutors (following Matt. 18:20) in the mutuum colloquium. Therefore, not only the proclamation from the pulpit, but also the devotional discussions become the vehicle of the Spirit’s presence. In this way, everyday rituals, such as getting out of bed, brushing one’s hair, and bathing the body, are explored according to their sacred and emblematic significance. Birken conceptualizes and practices this intermediality of the talking image, the painted word, and the pictorial conversation in such a way that this elevated rhetoric can be implemented through the medium of everyday speech.

(Bild-)Rhetorik des Gesprächs

Abstract

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