The Letters of Paul and the Construction of Early Christian Networks

The chapter argues that, contrary to what might be expected, in Paul’s network of early Christian communities, letters were subsidiary to non-literary, and thus non-epistolary, forms of face-to-face communication during meetings, by messengers, and through conversation and gossip. As Barclay shows in a close reading of 2 Cor 8:16–24, there was a lot going on orally before, behind, and in the wake of Paul’s letter(s) to the Corinthians. Nevertheless, Paul’s letters had a threefold managerial import: they managed perceptions as well as reputations, and they fulfilled a controlling function in that they affirmed his authority over his churches. Barclay claims that practice and physical presence were ultimately deemed superior to words and letters, and that Paul’s letters acquired the dominant role that we assign to them only in the subsequent rereading by different Christian communities.