Cui narro haec? Augustine and his Manichaean audience: A re-reading of the first three books of the Confessions

The issue of intended audience in the first three books of Augustine's Confessions is investigated in light of the presence of terms and phrases that may have had special connotations for potential Manichaean readers. This is done against the background of definitions of protreptic and paraenetic, which typically revolve around audience location and communicative purpose. Although it has become commonplace to refer to the Confessions as a protreptic the work displays a number of characteristics more in line with current mainstream definitions of paraenetic, amongst other things, by assuming the stance of addressing insiders in agreement with the author's world view. It is argued that the type of reader most receptive to the insider stance and allusion to the Old Testament on the one hand and to the Manichaean material on the other, would be a Manichaean apostate recently converted to Catholic Christianity.

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Main Author: Kotzé,Annemaré
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2013
Online Access:http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222013000100034
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spelling oai:scielo:S0259-942220130001000342014-03-14Cui narro haec? Augustine and his Manichaean audience: A re-reading of the first three books of the ConfessionsKotzé,AnnemaréThe issue of intended audience in the first three books of Augustine's Confessions is investigated in light of the presence of terms and phrases that may have had special connotations for potential Manichaean readers. This is done against the background of definitions of protreptic and paraenetic, which typically revolve around audience location and communicative purpose. Although it has become commonplace to refer to the Confessions as a protreptic the work displays a number of characteristics more in line with current mainstream definitions of paraenetic, amongst other things, by assuming the stance of addressing insiders in agreement with the author's world view. It is argued that the type of reader most receptive to the insider stance and allusion to the Old Testament on the one hand and to the Manichaean material on the other, would be a Manichaean apostate recently converted to Catholic Christianity. University of Pretoria HTS Theological Studies v.69 n.1 20132013-01-01journal articletext/htmlhttp://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222013000100034en
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language English
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author Kotzé,Annemaré
spellingShingle Kotzé,Annemaré
Cui narro haec? Augustine and his Manichaean audience: A re-reading of the first three books of the Confessions
author_facet Kotzé,Annemaré
author_sort Kotzé,Annemaré
title Cui narro haec? Augustine and his Manichaean audience: A re-reading of the first three books of the Confessions
title_short Cui narro haec? Augustine and his Manichaean audience: A re-reading of the first three books of the Confessions
title_full Cui narro haec? Augustine and his Manichaean audience: A re-reading of the first three books of the Confessions
title_fullStr Cui narro haec? Augustine and his Manichaean audience: A re-reading of the first three books of the Confessions
title_full_unstemmed Cui narro haec? Augustine and his Manichaean audience: A re-reading of the first three books of the Confessions
title_sort cui narro haec? augustine and his manichaean audience: a re-reading of the first three books of the confessions
description The issue of intended audience in the first three books of Augustine's Confessions is investigated in light of the presence of terms and phrases that may have had special connotations for potential Manichaean readers. This is done against the background of definitions of protreptic and paraenetic, which typically revolve around audience location and communicative purpose. Although it has become commonplace to refer to the Confessions as a protreptic the work displays a number of characteristics more in line with current mainstream definitions of paraenetic, amongst other things, by assuming the stance of addressing insiders in agreement with the author's world view. It is argued that the type of reader most receptive to the insider stance and allusion to the Old Testament on the one hand and to the Manichaean material on the other, would be a Manichaean apostate recently converted to Catholic Christianity.
publisher University of Pretoria
publishDate 2013
url http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222013000100034
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