This title was first published in 2003:This book offers a bold reading of Protestant tradition from a rhetorical and literary perspective. Arguing that Protestant thought is based in a rhetorical performance of authority, Hobson draws on a wide range of modern and postmodern thought to defend this account of rhetorical authority from various charges of authoritarianism. With close readings of Augustine, Luther, Kierkegaard and Barth, this book develops a new 'rhetorical theology of the Word' and also a new critique of secular modernity, with particular reference to modern literature and the thought of Nietzsche. Confronting the related issues of rhetoric and authority, Hobson provides a provocative account of modern theology which offers new perspectives on theology's relationship to literature and postmodern thought.

Contents: Introduction: Rhetorical Origins: The rhetorical gospel (I): Biblical and anthropological roots; The rhetorical gospel (II): theoretical questions; Before Protestantism: Augustine; Protestantism: 'Non vi sed verbo': Luther and the rhetorical militancy of faith; Protestant poetics (I): the 17th century; Kierkegaard and the crisis of authority; Protestant poetics (II): Romanticism and after; The rhetorical theology of Karl Barth; Barth and Nietzsche: prophetic rhetoric regained; After Barth; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.