Contested Space and Dangerous Places: Literary Space and Argumentation in 1 Clement

du Toit D (2025)

Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes

Publication year: 2025

Publisher: BRILL

Edited Volumes: 1 Clement as an Argumentative Text

Series: Novum Testamentum, Supplements

Pages Range: 236-258

ISBN: 9789004742062

DOI: 10.1163/9789004742062_013

Abstract

Taking its cue from theories of literary space, this essay offers a description of the spatial configuration implied by 1 Clement and then analyzes how the author employs it for his argumentative ends. It analyzes the implied communicative space (i.e., epistolary space) and its spatial setting (i.e., cosmic and ecclesial space), and demonstrates how the spatial configuration is invested with meaning: cosmic space is semanticized as creational space and ecclesial space as salvific space. It then analyzes the argumentative function of this spatial configuration and argues that the argument of 1 Clement rests upon the spatial configuration construed by the author. The spatial concept was therefore construed to persuade the Corinthian readers to change their behavior. First Clement argues that the deposal of the elders deranged the (divinely sanctioned) spatial order and thereby altered the character of ecclesial space from salvific to (potentially) perilous space. The argument is geared at restoring ecclesial space as salvific space.

Authors with CRIS profile

David du Toit Lehrstuhl für Neues Testament II (Literatur und Geschichte des Urchristentums)

How to cite

APA:

du Toit, D. (2025). Contested Space and Dangerous Places: Literary Space and Argumentation in 1 Clement. In 1 Clement as an Argumentative Text. (pp. 236-258). BRILL.

MLA:

du Toit, David. "Contested Space and Dangerous Places: Literary Space and Argumentation in 1 Clement." 1 Clement as an Argumentative Text. BRILL, 2025. 236-258.

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