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81 Chapter 6 Rhetography A New Way of Seeing the Familiar Text Vernon K. Robbins Vernon Robbins takes us on a journey from Kennedy’s observations about radical Christian rhetoric in the New Testament to Robbins’ own socio-rhetorical interpretation . That journey begins in the courthouse, political assembly, and civil ceremonies with their judicial, deliberative, and epideictic rhetoric, respectively. It leads us to the new locations of early Christian discourse: the imperial court, the kingdom of God on earth, the imperial household, the body, the family household, and the sacrificial temple. These are the locations of apocalyptic, prophetic, precreation, miracle, wisdom, and priestly rhetoric, respectively. Robbins opens up new vistas that make for a rewarding journey. The process of writing this essay has reminded me that “There is nothing new under the sun.”1 It also has renewed my conviction that all things humans perceive to be new are reconfigurations of that which is old and commonplace. The topic of this essay is rhetography, a term of importance for scholars investigating the “Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity.”2 Rhetography refers to the graphic images people create in their minds as a result of the visual texture of a text.3 Rhetography communicates a context of meaning to a hearer or reader. A speaker or writer composes, intentionally or unintentionally, a context of communication through statements or signs that conjure visual images in the mind which, in turn, evoke “familiar” contexts that provide meaning for a hearer or reader. The term rhetography emerges from blending both the linguistic and the pictorial turns that are occurring at the beginning of the twenty -first century.4 The term has an important relation to the ancient progymnastic rhetorical exercise of ekphrasis in ancient Greek literature, which is “descriptive language, bringing what is shown clearly before the eyes.”5 It has a direct relation to Erwin Panofsky’s “Iconography Black Watson Rhetoric final.indd 81 8/27/08 9:02:05 AM 82 Vernon K. Robbins and Iconology” and his dialogue with Karl Mannheim on interpretation .6 In addition, Roland Barthes’ “The Imagination of the Sign” and “Literature and Signification” are important for understanding this essay.7 W. J. T. Mitchell’s Picture Theory, appearing in 1994, was a landmark moment in the discussion, and the three chapters in the section entitled “Textual Pictures” have a special relation to this essay.8 In this broader context, this chapter emerges at the interface of “icon” and “logos,”9 namely in a discussion of the interactive relation of rhetography (pictorial narration)10 and rhetology (argumentative narration) in discourse.11 In the study of religion, this essay is especially informed by Harvey Whitehouse’s work on arguments and icons, the work of Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson on “bringing ritual to mind,” and Laurie L. Patton’s work on the history of images in the religious literature of early India that people used for the attainment of mental and verbal ability.12 The importance of rhetography in rhetorical analysis has emerged as a result of extended socio-rhetorical analysis of classical rhetoric and its function in interpretation of texts. Classical rhetoric developed its rhetorical system by picturing the rhetorical dynamics in three locations in the city-state: courtroom (judicial or forensic); political assembly (deliberative or symbouleutic [advisory]), and civil ceremony (epideictic or demonstrative). Classical rhetoric understands the purposes , goals, and procedures of each kind of rhetoric by picturing in the mind the speaker (ethos), speech (logos), and audience (pathos) in these three different locations. Traditional interpretation influenced by classical rhetoric has placed primary emphasis on speech (logos) in texts. From the perspective of socio-rhetorical interpretation, this approach has given primary attention to rhetology at the expense of rhetography in literature. In New Testament studies, the emphasis on “rhetology” has produced extensive investigation of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew; substantive analysis of the speeches of Stephen, Peter, and Paul in the Acts of the Apostles; and many other insightful studies of other portions of narrative and speech in the gospels and Acts.13 It also has focused on epistles as speeches or conversations.14 The absence of attention to “rhetography” has left a gap in rhetorical interpretation, namely a widespread consensus that it is not possible to formulate a systematic rhetorical approach to narrative portions of the gospels and Acts, apocalyptic portions of early Christian literature, and other aspects Black Watson Rhetoric final.indd 82 8/27/08 9:02:05 AM [3.136.18...

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