Questions in Religious Authoritative Texts

RSCS

10 septembre 2019

11 septembre 2019

Louvain-la-Neuve

Auditorium du Musée L (Place des sciences)

The Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the rabbinic literature and the texts of the Fathers of the Church are increasingly studied as texts that use the same rhetorical strategies as the contemporary literature of their respective milieu. This colloquium contributes to the debate on the function of "questions" in the rhetoric of religious texts. 

 
Who asks the questions? Are they many? Who are the recipients? On which topics are questions asked? What kinds of question are used (informative, rhetorical, open, incriminating, ...)? What is the place questions in the set of rhetorical techniques of a text?
 
The presentations will illustrate at least two things:
(1) the ultimate function of the questions goes beyond communication between the characters of the story and is at the level of communication with the readers,
(2) the function of the questions varies between the individual books of the Old Testament, the New Testament, rabbinical tradition and the Fathers of the church.
 
 
Chair : Geert Van Oyen (UCLouvain – RSCS) and Bart Koert (Universiteit Tilburg)
 
 

Program