Paul D . Wheatley | Nashotah House Theological Seminary (original) (raw)

Book Reviews by Paul D . Wheatley

Antiphon, 2022

Review of Gordon Jeanes and Bridget Nichols, ed. Lively Oracles of God: Perspectives on the Bible... more Review of Gordon Jeanes and Bridget Nichols, ed.
Lively Oracles of God: Perspectives on the Bible and Liturgy
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022 268 pages. Paperback. $34.95., published in Antiphon 26 (3) 2022: 320–323

Church History, 2019

Review of J. D. McLarty, Thecla's Devotion: Narrative, Emotion and Identity in the Acts of Paul a... more Review of J. D. McLarty, Thecla's Devotion: Narrative, Emotion and Identity in the Acts of Paul and Thecla.

Papers by Paul D . Wheatley

Religions, 2023

The abundance of ritual descriptions in the Gospel of Mark suggests a discourse about ritual betw... more The abundance of ritual descriptions in the Gospel of Mark suggests a discourse about ritual between the narrator and early audiences of the Gospel. The prominence of the ritual of baptism at the beginning (Mark 1:9–11) and anointing at the end (16:1–8), and the recurrence of themes introduced in Jesus’s baptism at turning points in the Gospel (9:2–8; 10:38–39; 15:38–39) suggest broader ritual—and specifically baptismal—significance in the narrative. Recent changes helpfully differentiate narrative- and performance-critical interpretive approaches as text-oriented (narrative) and audience-oriented (performance), but these hermeneutical methods also work in concert. This article combines cognitive studies of narrative immersion with observations about the role of ritual in group identity formation and the impartation of religious traditions to analyze the narration of ritual acts in Mark. Giving attention to the use of internal focalization and description of bodily movements in ritual narrations, this article argues that depictions of rituals in Mark involve the audience in ways that deliver audience-oriented interpretations through text-oriented means. This analysis shows how Mark’s ritual narrations are conducive to evoking the audience’s experience of baptism, familiar to audience members as described in the undisputed Pauline epistles, the only descriptions of the rite that clearly antedate the composition of Mark. Publicly reading these narrated rituals creates an audience experience that neither requires the performance of the ritual in the context of the reading event nor an “acting out” of the ritual depicted in the narrative to create a participatory, communal experience of the text.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution

Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2023

In Mark 14:3-9 and its parallels, a woman anoints Jesus with μύρον, which Jesus interprets as an ... more In Mark 14:3-9 and its parallels, a woman anoints Jesus with μύρον, which Jesus interprets as an anticipation of his death. This article considers the ritual and cultic connotations of the use of μύρον ("ointment") and νάρδος ("spikenard") from Mark 14:3-9 in connection with the importance Jesus attaches to this woman's act in Mark 14:9: "Truly I say to you: Wherever the Gospel [ἐυαγγέλιον] may be proclaimed in all the world, indeed what this woman has done shall be spoken as a memorial of her." This declaration is significant for understanding the genre of Mark. Rudolph Bultmann's observations about the Gospels' cultic associations, directed less toward the question of their genre than to the question of their historiography, have largely gone unexplored in subsequent scholarship. In this article, I compare the use of μύρον and νάρδος in the LXX, MT, early midrashim on Song of Songs, and early Christian baptismal rituals. The findings suggest that the scriptural and ritual imagery in Mark 14:3-9 indicates that the Gospel uses ritual narration as a means of discourse with readers familiar with these rites.

Antiphon, 2022

Review of Gordon Jeanes and Bridget Nichols, ed. Lively Oracles of God: Perspectives on the Bible... more Review of Gordon Jeanes and Bridget Nichols, ed.
Lively Oracles of God: Perspectives on the Bible and Liturgy
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022 268 pages. Paperback. $34.95., published in Antiphon 26 (3) 2022: 320–323

Church History, 2019

Review of J. D. McLarty, Thecla's Devotion: Narrative, Emotion and Identity in the Acts of Paul a... more Review of J. D. McLarty, Thecla's Devotion: Narrative, Emotion and Identity in the Acts of Paul and Thecla.

Religions, 2023

The abundance of ritual descriptions in the Gospel of Mark suggests a discourse about ritual betw... more The abundance of ritual descriptions in the Gospel of Mark suggests a discourse about ritual between the narrator and early audiences of the Gospel. The prominence of the ritual of baptism at the beginning (Mark 1:9–11) and anointing at the end (16:1–8), and the recurrence of themes introduced in Jesus’s baptism at turning points in the Gospel (9:2–8; 10:38–39; 15:38–39) suggest broader ritual—and specifically baptismal—significance in the narrative. Recent changes helpfully differentiate narrative- and performance-critical interpretive approaches as text-oriented (narrative) and audience-oriented (performance), but these hermeneutical methods also work in concert. This article combines cognitive studies of narrative immersion with observations about the role of ritual in group identity formation and the impartation of religious traditions to analyze the narration of ritual acts in Mark. Giving attention to the use of internal focalization and description of bodily movements in ritual narrations, this article argues that depictions of rituals in Mark involve the audience in ways that deliver audience-oriented interpretations through text-oriented means. This analysis shows how Mark’s ritual narrations are conducive to evoking the audience’s experience of baptism, familiar to audience members as described in the undisputed Pauline epistles, the only descriptions of the rite that clearly antedate the composition of Mark. Publicly reading these narrated rituals creates an audience experience that neither requires the performance of the ritual in the context of the reading event nor an “acting out” of the ritual depicted in the narrative to create a participatory, communal experience of the text.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution

Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2023

In Mark 14:3-9 and its parallels, a woman anoints Jesus with μύρον, which Jesus interprets as an ... more In Mark 14:3-9 and its parallels, a woman anoints Jesus with μύρον, which Jesus interprets as an anticipation of his death. This article considers the ritual and cultic connotations of the use of μύρον ("ointment") and νάρδος ("spikenard") from Mark 14:3-9 in connection with the importance Jesus attaches to this woman's act in Mark 14:9: "Truly I say to you: Wherever the Gospel [ἐυαγγέλιον] may be proclaimed in all the world, indeed what this woman has done shall be spoken as a memorial of her." This declaration is significant for understanding the genre of Mark. Rudolph Bultmann's observations about the Gospels' cultic associations, directed less toward the question of their genre than to the question of their historiography, have largely gone unexplored in subsequent scholarship. In this article, I compare the use of μύρον and νάρδος in the LXX, MT, early midrashim on Song of Songs, and early Christian baptismal rituals. The findings suggest that the scriptural and ritual imagery in Mark 14:3-9 indicates that the Gospel uses ritual narration as a means of discourse with readers familiar with these rites.