Corpus-Paul

[Jill and Dale Walker <jilldale AT rcnchicago.com>]

Paul Zanker's The Power of Images in the Age of 
Augustus
is a wonderful monograph on propaganda. It focuses
on the implementation of imperial power, rather than its
overthrow, but it does address the other part of your
question, viz., the advancement of an agenda.

>From the perspective of social psychology here are two
interesting books: 
Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Anthony Pratkanis, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of
Persuasaion
These two books focus on the present, but provide
helpful ways to think about how people in the past
might have accomplished their ends. Let me put that another
way. These books provide a way of thinking about rhetoric
that will help you think about how propaganda works.

All three are also fun to read.

Dale Walker
Chicago



At 04:07 PM 11/20/01 -0800, you wrote:
>At 4:23 PM -0500 11/19/01, David C. Hindley wrote:
>>List,
>>
>>I light of the events of Sept. 11th, and the subsequent media
interest
>>in Osama BinLaden's Al Qaida organization, including its various
front
>>organizations (charities, money exchanges, banking, etc), I
am
>>reminded of Mike Conley's* not-so-recent posts in which he
expressed
>>the opinion that early Christianity had assumed the form of
a
>>subversive organization intent upon toppling the Roman state
and
>>replacing it with one of its own making.
>>
>>It seems to me that the relatively rapid dissemination of
Christianity
>>(albeit in a multitude of forms) through the empire, and 
the
>>organizational structures mentioned or alluded to in the NT and
early
>>Christian literature, bear a closer look.
>>
>>Are listmembers aware of serious research on resistance movements
and
>>subversive movements in the Roman empire (especially in the
1st
>>century CE)? I would also be interested in books or articles that
deal
>>with dissemination of propaganda in connection with the
advancement of
>>an agenda (political, religious or philosophical). They do not
have to
>>bear directly on Christianity, and it might actually be better if
the
>>critic does *not* attempt to draw (or refute) such a
connection.
>>
>>While I am not saying that Christianity was the kind of movement
that
>>Mike portrays it as (almost like the Communist party in modern
times
>>before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but if the shoe fits
...),
>>I do suspect that more complex organizational, financial 
and
>>propaganda structures were present (varying, of course, with time
and
>>place) than is usually assumed.
>>
>>Respectfully,
>>
>>Dave Hindley
>>Cleveland, Ohio, USA
>
>Try
>Ramsay MacMullen, Enemies of the Roman Order. London and New York:
>Routledge, 2000.
>
>
>
>-- 
>****************************************************************
>Edgar Krentz
>Christ Seminary--Seminex Professor of New Testament, Emeritus
>Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
>1100 East 55th Street, Chicago, IL 60615
>Tel: 773-256-0773; home phone 773-947-8105
>e-mail: ekrentz AT lstc.edu
>home e-mail: ekrentz AT earthlink.net
>------------------------------------------------------------
>GERASKO D' AEI POLLA DIDASKOMENOS
>"I grow old, constantly learning many things." [Solon of
Athens]
>***************************************************************
>
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