ABSTRACT
Among many other things, John Chrysostom ‘did dialogue’. He lived an ascetic life for some time, and then moved to the urban milieu and became an important figure as a deacon and priest in Antioch until he was elected bishop in Constantinople.1 This eventful life saw Chrysostom involved in conflict in the religious arena in situations that demanded the development and practice of developed skills in dialogue. It is my intention here to analyse how the rhetorical mechanisms of dialogue worked in the composition of Chrysostom’s On Priesthood as part of a wider strategy that contributed to defining the figure and functions of a priest in the changing and evolving setting of the last decades of the fourth century CE. I also want to survey how such rhetorical mechanisms were deployed in other works by Chrysostom with the intention of engaging in contemporary concerns and debates within Christianity. I intend to show by this means that On Priesthood should not be read as an isolated work but as a dialogue intimately intertwined with other works in which Chrysostom disseminated his agenda and defended his position.
