Rhetorical criticism seeks to understand and comment on the way texts function in their social and cultural contexts. This text puts Paul's letter in the context of ancient theories and literary practices of consolation and argues that Paul wrote to the Philippians in order to console them. The author aims to show that the letter has a unified overall strategy and offers an account of Paul's argument. The book falls into two parts. Part I explores the integrity of Philippians, the rhetorical situation of the letter, and ancient consolation as the possible genre of Philippians, while Part II examines Philippians 1:3-11; 1:12-2:30; 3:1-4:1, and 4:2-23. The exegetical studies in Part II focus on the consolatary topoi and arguments of Philippians.