Second, the work of Wilhelm Wuellner moves beyond style and arrangement to larger practices of persuasion and the recognition of varieties of argumentative situations in which the Bible functions. Wuellner is a rare rhetorical critic dedicated to bringing the Bible into conversation with modern readers. And third, literary theorist Stephen Mailloux foregrounds the institutional argumentative context of scholarship, including its rhetorical strategies and assumptions. Mailloux rejects any grand Theory of reading, instead considering how rhetorical practices address specific institutional concerns and values in specific historical contexts. Yet all four authors seek to find a liberating voice for the present through what amounts to historical excavation.
Rhetoric becomes simply another historical tool.
The book is grounded in Amador's 1995 Graduate Theological Union dissertation under the supervision of Herman Waetjen. But there are losses as well. In particular, the historical paradigm restricts biblical scholarship to an antiquarian interest, isolating it from any popular or cultural relevance. Chapter Five is somewhat puzzling. Here Amador could have spelled out how the rhetorical tradition as he understands it could enrich such critical work.