How Ancient Narratives Persuade: Acts in its Literary Context. By Eric Clouston

In this monograph Clouston investigates the Acts of the Apostles as a persuasive narrative. To this end, Clouston defines and seeks to validate a systematic method by which persuasiveness can be identified in ancient narratives (pp. vii, 4). This is the book’s main contribution—establishing a method for identifying and articulating persuasive techniques in narrative texts. Further, Clouston argues that understanding how ancient narratives seek to persuade is necessary for interpreting Acts in particular (p. 3). The first two chapters introduce the book, with chapter 2 setting forth ways to identify persuasive features of a narrative. Here Clouston address the narrator, implied audience, various narrative features, and two umbrella categories that become predominate in the book’s argument: first is the persuasive technique of accrediting or discrediting a character; second is Clouston’s enumeration of five categories of techniques of persuasion. These (which are also broken down into more specific categories) are (1) overt instruction; (2) worldview; (3) characterization; (4) antipathy; (5) plot and arrangement.