About the Book
Like all skilful authors, the composer of the biblical books of Luke and Acts understood that a good story requires more than a gripping plot - a persuasive narrative also needs well-portrayed, plot-enhancing characters. This book brings together a set of new essays examining characters and characterization in those books from a variety of methodological perspectives.
The essays illustrate how narratological, sociolinguistic, reader-response, feminist, redaction, reception historical, and comparative literature approaches can be fruitfully applied to the question of Luke's techniques of characterization. Theoretical and methodological discussions are complemented with case studies of specific Lukan characters. Together, the essays reflect the understanding that while many of the literary techniques involved in characterization attest a certain universality, each writer also brings his or her own unique perspective and talent to the portrayal and use of characters, with the result that analysis of a writer's characters and style of characterization can enhance appreciation of that writer's work.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
Introduction - Frank Dicken, Lincoln Christian University, USA and Julia Snyder, Humboldt Universität, Germany
Part 1: The Gospel of Luke
Chapter 1. The Woman Who Crashed Simon's Party: A Reader-Response Approach to Luke 7:36-50, James L. Resseguie, Winebrenner Theological Seminary, USA
Chapter 2. Levi's Banquet (Lk 5.39-39) and Lukan Discipleship: Group Characters and Christian Identity Formation, John A. Darr, Boston College, USA
Chapter 3. Zechariah and Gabriel as Thematic Characters: A Narratological Reading of the Beginning of Luke's Gospel (Luke 1.8-20), Hannah M. Cocksworth, King Edward's School, UK
Chapter 4. The Characterization of the Two Brothers in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15.11-32): Their Function and Afterlives, David B. Gowler, Oxford College of Emory University, USA
Chapter 5. A Woman's Touch: Manual and Emotional Dynamics of Female Characters in Luke's Gospel, F. Scott Spencer, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, USA
Chapter 6. The Rich Are the Bad Guys: Lukan Characters and Wealth Ethics, Cornelis Bennema, Union School of Theology, UK
Chapter 7. A Cognitive Narratological Approach to the Characterization(s) of Zacchaeus, Joel B. Green, Fuller Theological Seminary, USA
Part 2: The Acts of the Apostles
Chapter 8. Jesus, Present and/or Absent? The Presence and presentation of Jesus as a Character in the Book of Acts, Steve Walton, St Mary's University, UK
Chapter 9. Sight and Spectacle: 'Seeing' Paul in the Book of Acts, Brittany E. Wilson, Duke University Divinity School, USA
Chapter 10. The Characterization of Disciples in Acts: Genre, Method and Quality, Sean A. Adams, University of Glasgow, UK
Chapter 11. Sociolinguistic Dynamics and Characterization in the Acts of the Apostles, Julia A. Snyder, Humboldt Universität, Germany
Chapter 12. Simeon in Acts 15.14 Simon Peter and Echoes of Simeons Past, Stephen E. Fowl, Loyola University Maryland, USA
Chapter 13. Herod As Jesus' Executioner: Possibilities in Lukan Reception and Wirkungsgeschichte, Frank E. Dicken, Lincoln Christian University, USA
Bibliography
About the Author :
Frank E. Dicken is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Lincoln Christian University, USA.
Julia A. Snyder is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Regensburg, German.
Review :
…the contents of each essay in this volume are of a high caliber and worthy of consideration… The diversity of methodological approaches, perspectives, and literary insights make this volume a helpful and valuable contribution to scholarship on Luke-Acts.
The volume offers a useful primer in possible methods in approaching characterization, with a set of worked examples, along with a useful up-to-date bibliography.
The volume is a very welcome companion to those in the same series devoted previously to John and to Mark.
This collection of essays is in the third volume in a series of literary-critical studies on characters and characterization in the NT…Luke-Acts is of particular interest in this quest because of its sheer length and because it contains some of the most famous and memorable characters in the NT.
