Delivering from Memory: The Effect of Performance on the Early Christian Audience

"When the New Testament was read publicly, what effect did the performances have on the audience? In Delivering from Memory, William Shiell argues that these performances shaped early Christian paideia, among communities of active, engaged listeners. Using Greco-Roman rhetorical conventions, Shiell's groundbreaking study suggests that lectors delivered from memory without memorizing the text verbatim and audiences listened with their memories in a collaborative process with the performer. The text functioned as a starting place for emotion, paraphrase, correction, and instruction. In the process, the performances trained and shaped the character of the reader and the formation of the audience."--P. [4] of cover.

William D. Shiell is the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tennessee. He is the author of Reading Acts: The Lector and the Early Christian Audience (2004) and Sessions with Matthew (2008).