The rich legacy of Western rhetoric, which has been neglected by scholars for several centuries, is now being reclaimed. As a result, rhetoric is no longer being reduced to a study of the biblical writer's style. Rhetoric as the use by biblical writers of commonly accepted rules and techniques for persuading their audiences of certain viewpoints, or for reaffirming them, is now being recovered. The revival of rhetorical criticism, conceived as a set of rules and techniques sanctioned by the scholarly guild, should enhance the interpreter's approach to specific texts, to the Bible as a whole, and to the process of interpretation. 

Classical rhetoric, the rhetorical rules developed in Greece and Rome and their codification in rhetorical handbooks, maintained a place of centrality in the Western intellectual tradition through about 1500 C.E. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, there set in a period of decline of interest in rhetoric that culminated in its near demise, a situation that lasted well into the first quarter of the twentieth century. Since then we have witnessed a renaissance of rhetorical criticism, which aims at restoring "rhetoric to all its ancient rights" (Bakhtin, 1981:267; for treatments of this demise and spectacular rebirth see Conley; Horner; Vickers, 1988). The so-called new rhetoric is in large measure a modern rediscovery of ancient Western rhetoric. It brings with it, however, many issues that were never fully addressed in traditional rhetoric and which anticipate postmodern theoretical concerns. In what follows we will review critical factors in both the decline and the renaissance of rhetoric. 

The rhetorical tradition that we have outlined in the previous section has many features very much attuned to postmodern perspectives, and what we are calling for is not the imposition of entirely alien categories on traditional rhetoric. 

The current theoretical scene in literary criticism is highly conflicted and often appears anarchic; more and more theory is produced, there is "ceaseless discursive warfare" about theory, the "war of all against all" (Jameson, 1991:397; cf. Eagleton, 1990a:77). A paradoxical situation has developed in which we hear at one and the same time of the "almost universal triumph of theory" and the equally widespread "resistance to theory [as] an intrinsic, perennial aspect of theory itself" (J. Hillis Miller, 1987a:286). What is above all incumbent on theorists in this situation is the production of discourse that is self-reflexive and self-critical, and one that is intrinsic to theory itself. Theory must recognize and scrutinize its own specific ideological effects (Jameson, 391-99). This is one of the contributions postmodern criticism has to make to the new rhetoric. 

Here is the challenge of the new rhetoric: by definition of its proper domain, it must subvert the familiar Western distinctions between content and form, between theory and practice, or, in hermeneutical terms, between interpretation and application. Contemporary rhetorical criticism needs to become a sustained effort to subvert every tendency to solidify exegesis into some encompassing and imperialistic system. 

Amador, J. David Hester.  Academic Constraints in Rhetorical Criticism of the New Testament: An Introduction to a Rhetoric of Power.  Sheffield, Eng.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
BS 2380 .A433 1999
Betz, Hans D. Galatians: A Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Churches in Galatia. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979.
The author employs the principles of rhetoric in his exposition. For him, Galatians is forensic rhetoric. See Kennedy for a different view on this.
BS2685.3 .B47

Campbell, Barth L. Honor, Shame, and the Rhetoric of I Peter.  Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1998.
BS 2795.2 .C35 1998

Dabourne, Wendy.  Purpose and Cause in Pauline Exegesis: Romans 1.16--4.25 and  a New Approach to the Letters.  Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
BS 2665.2 .D33 1999

Fehribach, Adeline. The Women in the Life of the Bridegroom: A Feminist Historical-Literary Analysis of the Female Characters in the Fourth Gospel. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1998.
BS 2615.6 .W65 F44 1998

Fiorenza, Elisabeth S. But She Said: Feminist Practices of Biblical Interpretation. New York: Beacon Press, 1992.
In this study the author by using Mark's account of how a Syro-Phoenician women's wit transforms Jesus's rejection in order to benefit her daughter suggests her own paradigm for the critical rhetorical model of feminist biblical interpretation. This model is conceived as a strategy, envisioned as a dance, incorporating a variety of theoretical insights and methods.
BS 680 .W7 F56  (book cover image from Barnes and Noble) 

George, Larry Darnell.  The Narrative Unity of the Fourth Gospel's Resurrection: A Literary-Rhetorical Reading of John 20--21.  Thesis (Ph.D. in Religion)--Vanderbilt University, 1997.
BS 2615.6 .R47 G467 1997

Kennedy, George. Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980.
A fine survey of rhetoric from the classical period onward. His treatment of the NT material is important for those who want to use the rhetorical approach to the text.
PN183 .K4

________. New Testament Interpretation Through Rhetorical Criticism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
Very important guide for approaching the NT text through rhetorical analysis. Summarizes Aristotle's different types of rhetoric and gives examples of these that occur in the New Testament. Required reading.
BS2385 .K39 1984

Kittredge, Cynthia Briggs. Community and Authority: The Rhetoric of Obedience in the Pauline Tradition.  Harrisburg, PA.: Trinity Press International, 1998.
BS 2695.6 .O26 K58 1998

Mack, Burton L. Rhetoric and the New Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.
The author provides a highly informative, broadly conceptualized, and useful introduction to the rhetoric of the New Testament from the Greco-Roman perspective.
BS 2370 .M33 1990

Mitchell, Margaret M. Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation. Tubingen: J.C.B.Mohr, 1991.
The author has brought needed refinement to the methodology of rhetorical criticism, using not only the statements of the ancient rhetorical handbooks but also evidence from actual speeches and letters from antiquity.
BS 2675.2 .M583 1991

Perelman, Chaim. The Realm of Rhetoric. Trans. by Wm. Kluback. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982.
The major part of the book (Chs. 2-12) is concerned with illustrating major ways of giving rational justification for the argument at hand. Training in philosophy will facilitate one's reading this book.
BC177 .P38413

Reasoner, Mark.  The Strong and The Weak: Romans 14.1--15.13 in Context. Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
BS 2665.2 .R33 1999

Robbins, Vernon K. Exploring the Texture of Texts: A Guide to Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation. Valley Forge, Pa.: Trinity Press, 1996.
BS 2380 .R62 1996

________. Jesus the Teacher: A Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation of Mark. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.
Author applies Burke's taxonomy of repetitive, conventional, and progressive forms to Mark's gospel.
BS2585.2 .R58 1984

________.  The Tapestry of Early Christian Discourse: Rhetoric, Society, and Ideology. London; New York; Routledge, 1996.
BS 2380 .R63 1996

Warner, Martin, ed.  The Bible as Rhetoric: Studies in Biblical Persuasion and Credibility.  Warwick Studies in Philosophy and Literature.  New York: Routledge, 1990.
Critical studies of select aspects of the rhetoric of biblical literature and of the rhetoric of the Bible.
BS 537 .B52 1990

Wire, Antoinette Clark.  The Corinthian Women Prophets: A Reconstruction through Paul's Rhetoric. Minneapolis: Augsburg/Fortress, 1990.
A reading of the rhetorical impact of I Corinthians shaped by a feminist critique that anticipates postmodern concerns.
BS 2655 .W5 W57 1990

Witherington, Ben. The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary.  Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans; Carlisle, U.K.: Paternoster Press, 1998.
BS 2625.2 .W58 1998