Exploring Philemon

Exploring Philemon offers a new sociorhetorical interpretation of the Letter to Philemon that uses up-to-date rhetorical sensory-aesthetic intertextual social and cultural ideological and theological strategies to interpret this short but influential biblical document. This book shows how this letter entered the world of the ancient Mediterranean and the early church with a dramatic and powerful rhetorical force by analyzing the visual imagery and the range of textures interwoven with each other to produce a profound effect on an early Christian (Philemon) and on the church that met in his home. It demonstrates that many striking and subtle features work together to present a rhetorical argument that the new Christian society must be one of freedom brotherhood and partnership not just for the powerful but for all.