%0 Journal Article %1 simonson_assembly_2003 %A Simonson, Peter %D 2003 %J Journal of Media and Religion %K externalist intellectual media-theory medium-analysis religion %P 165--182 %R 10.1207/S15328415JMR0203_03 %T Assembly, Rhetoric, and Widespread Community: Mass Communication in Paul of Tarsus %V 2 %X This article claims that Paul of Tarsus is a significant figure in the history and theory of mass communication. Drawing on his letters to the Corinthians and other early groups of Christ-followers, I argue that Paul used eloquent mediated rhetoric to conceptualize local ritual practice in such a way that it could form the basis for widespread solidarity and mass community in a geographically expanding religious sect. This was a form of mass communication centered in dispersed bodily assemblies and radiating outward to encompass ever wider regions of a distended mass society. It hinged on the Body of Christ, which in Paul's letters became a space- and time-binding medium of mass communication that held together a dispersed society of the Christ-proclaiming faithful. Paul was essentially an early medium theorist, and I argue that his bifocal attention to local assembly and distant solidarity is instructive for both the study and social practices of mass communication today.

@article{simonson_assembly_2003, abstract = {This article claims that Paul of Tarsus is a significant figure in the history and theory of mass communication. Drawing on his letters to the Corinthians and other early groups of Christ-followers, I argue that Paul used eloquent mediated rhetoric to conceptualize local ritual practice in such a way that it could form the basis for widespread solidarity and mass community in a geographically expanding religious sect. This was a form of mass communication centered in dispersed bodily assemblies and radiating outward to encompass ever wider regions of a distended mass society. It hinged on the Body of Christ, which in Paul's letters became a space- and time-binding medium of mass communication that held together a dispersed society of the Christ-proclaiming faithful. Paul was essentially an early medium theorist, and I argue that his bifocal attention to local assembly and distant solidarity is instructive for both the study and social practices of mass communication today.}, added-at = {2019-08-29T01:56:31.000+0200}, author = {Simonson, Peter}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/216c652a7bc542777e7c8aa3b4d78bf5e/jpooley}, doi = {10.1207/S15328415JMR0203_03}, interhash = {0017d7cd08982606c6c7cec8b73595f4}, intrahash = {16c652a7bc542777e7c8aa3b4d78bf5e}, journal = {Journal of Media and Religion}, keywords = {externalist intellectual media-theory medium-analysis religion}, pages = {165--182}, timestamp = {2019-08-29T01:56:31.000+0200}, title = {Assembly, {{Rhetoric}}, and {{Widespread Community}}: {{Mass Communication}} in {{Paul}} of {{Tarsus}}}, volume = 2, year = 2003 }