New Boundaries in Old Territory

New Boundaries in Old Territory exhibits a reformulation of the boundaries of New Testament Studies to bring literary, rhetorical, and social science strategies into the center of research and interpretation. These essays display the development of Robbins' groundbreaking Socio-Rhetorical Criticism, which evaluates New Testament texts in their Jewish and Hellenistic-Roman environments. The innovative vision of Socio-Rhetorical Criticism challenges the interpreter to widen the intertextual boundaries to include the Mediterranean world in which early Christians lived, to widen the social and cultural boundaries to include customs, behaviors, and attitudes of people in Mediterranean society, and to widen the limiting perspectives of contemporary ideological boundaries.

Vernon K. Robbins is Professor of Religion in the Department and Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.