Sprachlich-ästhetische Darstellung und „Anwendung“ von Gewalt in Texten frühchristlicher Apologeten – das Beispiel der Rede Tatians an die Griechen

Abstract

The juncture and is an important aspect of the wider theme of religion and Language is capable of representing violence and make it appealing in terms of literary thus creating an aesthetics of Language can also inflict violence through a »rhetoric of violence«, either directly by causing psychological effects, or indirectly, by provoking actual physical violence. This essay applies these concepts in an analysis of an early Christian Apology, Tatian’s Oration to the Greeks (dated ca. 165-172 AD). Previously, similar studies have been undertaken for Christian Apologies from the fourth and fifth centuries in view of what has been perceived as an increasing intolerance of Christianity towards Jews, pagans and heretics. This analysis of a much earlier text – it is indeed one of the earliest texts of its kind – suggests however that the motivation for the use of linguistic was quite differentiated and cannot be reduced to a tendency towards intolerance inherent in Christianity. In the context of contemporary socio-linguistics such as C. Culpepper’s study Impoliteness: Using to cause offence (Cambridge 2011) violent language might even be understood as a technique for reducing intolerance and avoiding physical violence rather than as a catalyst of physical violence.