Eugene V. Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies at Connecti-cut College, writes: 'In a context where the general value of the Humani-ties has increasingly come under question by those who see a college educa-tion as necessarily being directly tied to the first job that students will have af-ter they graduate, an ability to make a vigorous case about the contribution of study-ing the Bible to any college student's education is crucial for any teacher'. This second collection of essays edited by Jane Webster and Glenn Hol-land seeks not only to promote the role of biblical...

Eugene V. Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies at Connecticut College, writes: 'In a context where the general value of the Humanities has increasingly come under question by those who see a college education as necessarily being directly tied to the first job that students will have after they graduate, an ability to make a vigorous case about the contribution of studying the Bible to any college student's education is crucial for any teacher'. This second collection of essays edited by Jane Webster and Glenn Holland seeks not only to promote the role of biblical studies...

Receiving a letter from Paul was a major event in the early churches. Given the orally oriented culture of the time, a letter was designed to be read out loud in front of an audience. The document was an intermediate state for the local transport of the message, but the actual medium of communication was the performance event. This event was embedded in the written text in a manner comparable to a theater script. After careful preparation because of high expectations from ancient audiences, a presenter embodied the message with his voice, gazes, and gestures and made it not only understood...