Galatians and the Rhetoric of Crisis

The Apostle Paul employed strategies to win over his audiences. At times his desire to oust his opponents overrode any loyalty he may have felt toward any particular reading of the Jewish scriptures. Indeed, Paul exhibits no angst over adapting scriptures to suit the needs of his situation. In this close reading of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Livesey draws upon classicist Cecil Wooten’s “rhetoric of crisis” to compare Paul’s strategies to those of his predecessors, the Greek orator Demosthenes and Roman consul Cicero.