Exciting news! My dissertation, The Theme and Structure of the Didache: A Study in Discourse Analysis, is available on ProQuest!
The abstract is as follows:
The problem of the theme and structure of the Didache has not yet been handled adequately. The focus on source criticism and the prehistory of the text has drawn scholars to focus on the diachronic development of the text, often (though not always) at the expense of the meaning of the text as a coherent act of communication. On the other hand, attempts have been made to read the Didache as a whole while denying the diachronic development of the text, but these interpretations have frequently been unconvincing.
The goal of this study is to provide a coherent synchronic interpretation of the Didache that attempts to understand the meaning of the text as a whole while acknowledging that a complex diachronic development lies behind the text in its final form. The thesis of this study is that discourse analysis (DA) is able to determine the theme and structure of the Didache by analyzing how the global meaning of the Didache in its final form (theme) is conveyed by its arrangement (structure).
According to this study, the theme of the Didache that encapsulates the whole is, “Walk in the ethical and ritual instructions that lead to life.” The main divisions of the macrostructure of the Didache consist of a Discourse Title (title), and a Discourse Body (Did. 1.1–16.8). This Discourse Body divides into the Discourse Body Proper (Did. 1.1–15.3) and a Body Closing (Did. 16.1–8) with a brief transition joining the two together (Did. 15.4). The Discourse Body Proper consists of three sub-parts (Did. 1.1–6.2; 7.1–10.7; 11.3–15.3) in which the main themes are developed. These sub-parts are joined together by two transitional units (Did. 6.3; 11.1–2). This simple and elegant backbone structure is expanded into a full macrostructure outline in this study. The main chapter of this study (Chapter 4) consists of a unit-by-unit analysis of the theme and structure of the Didache, beginning from the largest units and working down to the smallest.
While this study is not the first to utilize DA to study the Didache, it is the first to do so with the intention of discerning how the theme of the book arises from its structure. It is also the first study to formulate a statement of the book’s theme. Finally, it has attempted to advance the study of the Didache by looking at both its microstructures and its macrostructures according to their syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
It was a joy to work on this project. If you are interested in Discourse Analysis or the Didache, I hope you’ll check it out!
Earthen Vessel 