TITLE: TYPE, PLACE, AND FUNCTION OF THE PRONOUNCEMENT STORY IN PLUTARCH’S MORALIA

AUTHOR: JOHN E. ALSUP

                - Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1.       Objections

2.       Corrections

3.       Commendations

4.       Inquiries

5.       Descriptions

6.       Quests

JOURNAL REVIEW:

                A study of Plutarch’s Moralia provides examples of the six types of pronouncement stories discussed in the “Introduction” to this volume. In this article representative examples are quoted, with brief explanation. Attention is also given to the redactional activity of Plutarch as he makes use of pronouncement stories in the context of his essays ad comments upon them. Plutarch’s use of pronouncement stories indicates his positive valuation of them as vehicles of education communication.

                This study of the pronouncement story in Plutarch’s Moralia has shown the importance of an exacting standard of interrelationship between stimulus and response, narrative, structure, and the kinds of tension and resolution which exist in the genre. Furthermore, with regard to the hortatory element it became apparent that the pronouncement story is normally concerned to broaden the base of appeal beyond the lauding of the hero type per se to include the person and conduct of the reader. Biographical interest, in fact, seems to be somewhat relative since Plutarch does not always honor this as redactor and the original form of the pronouncement story rarely – witty/caustic descriptions excepted – highlights this element in comparison with the ideal behavior or attitude which the key figure personifies. The hortatory element, be it expressed in approval, recommendation, and information or in disapproval, condemnation, and correction, is pervasive enough in virtually all of the pronouncement story to call it a nearly constant ingredient.

                Since the hortatory element is so pervasive, one need not expand the classification grid to include another type, namely a “warning” or “strong admonition” type. Where the intensity of the recommended action or attitude is sufficiently pronounced, it merely serves as a special accent of composition. The longer one reads Plutarch the more one is impressed by the stature as ethicist, philosopher, theologian, and teacher. The pronouncement story he has collected in the Moralia serve his compositional purposes. Comparison with the pronouncement story of the gospel tradition is a step to be taken with care and precision. The allotted space for this article prohibits a thoroughgoing confrontation.