Review of Penner and Lopez, De-Introducing the New Testament (original) (raw)

Todd Penner and Davina C. Lopez, "De-Introducing the New Testament: Texts, Worlds, Methods, Stories"

In this provocative and probing study, authors Todd Penner and Davina C. Lopez re-evaluate and re-narrate the field of New Testament studies and the constitutive stories its practitioners tell in introducing the discipline to non-specialists. Their chosen strategy, what the authors call “de-introduction,” is not deployed as a new or better way to introduce novices to the field. Rather, Lopez and Penner attempt to use the lens of “de-introduction” to explore the field, defamiliarize it, interrogate it, and prod at its foundational assumptions. This results in a highly original contribution and a valuable perspective on what New Testament studies is, has been, and might yet be. Although relatively slim for a volume exploring the discourses and habitus of an entire field, Penner and Lopez successfully cover much ground with clear, well-written, and engaging prose. Unlike many monographs produced in New Testament studies, this was both illuminating and fun to read (see, for example, the subtle and witty jokes throughout).

Introduction to the Special Issue “Current Trends in New Testament Study”

Religions, 2019

This special issue of Religions focuses on seven of the most important formal methods used to interpret the New Testament today. Several of the articles also touch on Old Testament/Hebrew Bible interpretation. In line with the multiplicity of methods for interpretation of texts in the humanities in general, biblical study has never before seen so many different methods. This situation poses both opportunities and challenges for scholars and students alike. This issue contains contributions by a mix of established scholars and younger scholars who have recently demonstrated their expertise in a certain method. Some articles will be easily accessible only to biblical scholars, but most will be accessible and instructive for beginning-and intermediate-level students of the Bible. I hope that the free-access essays offered here will become required reading in many universities and seminaries. The readership statistics displayed with each article, with information about how they have been read since their online publication here, show that they already have a wide appeal. I want to thank these authors for their contribution to this issue and for working so well with me and indirectly with the anonymous peer reviewers. Here, adapted from their abstracts, are brief introductions to their articles. Michele A. Connolly's article, "Antipodean and Biblical Encounter: Postcolonial Vernacular Hermeneutics in Novel Form," gives a post-secular exploration of what the Bible offers to modern-day Australia. She maintains that Australian culture, despite its secularity, has a capacity for spiritual awareness in ways that resonate with the Bible. Connolly employs R. S. Sugirtharajah's concept of "vernacular hermeneutics" to show that a contemporary Australian novel, The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton, expresses an Australian spirituality saturated with the images and values of the New Testament, but in a non-religious literary form that needs interpretation for a secular audience. Connolly's creative and fascinating article speaks not only to the Australian context but can serve as a model for the intersection of postcolonial biblical criticism and contemporary literature from many parts of the post-Christian world. "A Deep-Language Mathematical Analysis of Gospels, Acts and Revelation," by Emilio Matricciani and Liberato De Caro, offers a different kind of statistical analysis of the New Testament than scholars may be familiar with. It uses mathematical methods developed for studying what the authors call deep-language parameters of literary texts, for example, the number of words per sentence, the number of characters per word, the number of words between interpunctions (punctuation within sentences), and the number of interpunctions per sentence. Matricciani and De Caro consider, in concert with generally-accepted conclusions of New Testament scholarship, the full texts of the canonical Gospels, Acts and Revelation, then the Gospel passages attributable to the triple tradition (Matthew, Mark and Luke), to the double tradition (Matthew and Luke), to the single tradition in Matthew and Luke, and to the Q source. The results confirm and reinforce some common conclusions about the Gospels, Acts, Revelation, and Q source, but the authors show that they cast some new light on the capacity of the short-term memory of the readers/listeners of these texts. The authors posit that these New Testament writings fit very well in the larger Greek literature of the time. For readers unaccustomed to using

AJPS 19.2 (Full version) - Issues in New Testament Studies Part 1

Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies and APTS Press, 2016

In this and the next issue, we wade into the crowded waters of New Testament Studies. In Part 1, we present the work of a veteran scholar, Dr. Donald Hagner, the George Eldon Ladd Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the School of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. We also present the work of two newer scholars, Adrian Rosen, Ph.D (cand.) and Marlene Yap, MTh (cand.), who both teach here at APTS.