Moore offers a reading of the Gospels of Mark and Luke, applying the poststructuralist techniques of Derrida, Lacan and Foucault. He argues that whereas the language of the Gospels is concrete, pictorial and often startling, the language of modern scholarship tends to be propositional and abstract.

This helpful book introduces readers to five new and important methods of Gospel criticism and applies them to the interpretation of Mark. An introductory chapter outlines traditional methods of Gospel criticism and the history of the interpretation of Mark. Expertly written by recognized scholars, Mark and Method will be an aid for beginning students and a reliable guide to the rapidly changing array of texts and techniques in biblical studies:Narrative Criiticism: Elizabeth Struthers MalbonReader-response: Robert M. Fowler Deconstructive criticism: Stephen D. Moore Feminist criticism: Janice Capel Anderson Social-scientific criticism: David Rhoads

John Keenan's 'The Gospel of Mark' is a radically new reading of this most intriguing of the Synoptic gospels - a remarkable feat in the face of the explosion of Markan scholarship over the last twenty years. Keenan accomplishes this by approaching Mark as no other scholar has done: through the lens of Mahayana-Buddhist philosophy. This view stresses the emptying of all preconceived notions of how to begin reading as well as reclamation of such notions in terms of dependent co-arising and Jesus' assault on the validity of conventional religiosity. 'The Gospel of Mark' displays an alternative hermeneutical procedure, one generated by the Mahayana understanding of the function of text and doctrine, and informed by Mahayana philosophy. Part One of 'The Gospel of Mark' provides an overview of different interpretive techniques in Markan scholarship. It describes and argues for the validity of a Buddhist approach to this charter document of the Christian Gospel. Here the author demonstrates a profound grasp not only of scriptural scholarship but of Mahayana philosophy. Keenan discusses themes such as Mark's elliptical style and the journeying that provides the impetus for the narrative, and explores them through the lens of emptiness and dependent co-arising which are the focal points of a Mahayana reading. In Part Two Keenan gives the reader truly fresh insights into the paradoxical world of Mark's Jesus. Through a Buddhist lens, the text offers startling and new perspectives on Jesus himself, the experience of the Kingdom, miracle stories and parables, the passion and death, the resurrection and return.

The discussion concerning Markan characterisation (and Markan genre) can be helpfully informed by Bakhtinian categories. This book uses the twin foci of chronotope and carnival to examine specific characters in terms of different levels of dialogue. Various passages in Mark are examined, and thresholds are noted between interindividual character-zones, and between the hearing-reader and text-voices. Several generic contacts are shown to have shaped the text’s ‘genre-memory’ – in particular, the Graeco-Roman popular literature of the ancient world. The resultant picture is of an earthy, populist Gospel whose “voices” resonate with the “vulgar” classes, and whose spirituality is refreshingly relevant to everyday concerns.

The book observes and calls into question the scholarly practice of constructing a community behind the Gospel of Mark (and by implication, other Gospels as well) and using that community to control appropriate interpretation of Mark. It presents and critiques particular exemplars of this practice, and briefly suggests other ways to ground the interpretation of Mark. After an introduction, chapters are devoted to the work of Werner Kelber, Howard Clark Kee and Ched Myers. Critical conclusions are then drawn, after which the recent work of Joel Marcus is discussed. A final chapter briefly suggests ways forward. Constructing communities behind Gospels and using those communities as interpretive keys in Gospel interpretation is a widespread scholarly practice. To date, no full length critique of the practice has been published. This book fills that lacuna.

Although traditionally accepted by the church down through the centuries, the longer ending of Mark's Gospel (16:9-20) has been relegated by modern scholarship to the status of a later appendage. The arguments for such a view are chiefly based upon the witness of the two earliest complete manuscripts of Mark, and upon matters of language and style. This work shows that these primary grounds of argumentation are inadequate. It is demonstrated that the church fathers knew the Markan ending from the very earliest days, well over two centuries before the earliest extant manuscripts. The quantity of unique terms in the ending is also seen to fall within the parameters exhibited by undisputed Markan passages. Strong indications of Markan authorship are found in the presence of specific linguistic constructions, a range of literary devices, and the continuation of various themes prominent within the body of the Gospel. Furthermore, the writings of Luke show that the Gospel of Mark known to this author containedthe ending. Rather than being a later addition, the evidence is interpreted in terms of a textual omission occurring at a later stage in transmission, probably in Egypt during the second century.

"To experience the gospel message as first-century people heard it is to move into an oral world, one with very little reliance on manuscripts. The essays in this book explore this oral world and the Gospel of Mark within it. They demonstrate the oral style of Mark's gospel, which suggests that it was composed orally, transmitted orally in its entirety by literate and nonliterate storytellers, and survived to become part of the canon only because it was widely known orally. Women's storytelling also thrived during the first centuries of Christianity. With the transition to manuscript authority beginning in the middle of the second century, women's voices were often minimized, trivialized, or completely omitted in written versions. Further, when the Gospel of Mark was one of four written Gospels these voices were quickly ignored. An ancient audience hearing Mark performed, however, enjoyed a vibrant experience of the gospel message and its urgent call to follow."

Contributors Frederick D. Aquino Allen Black Mark C. Black Barry L. Blackburn Randall D. Chesnutt Jeffrey W. Childers Larry Chouinard Everett Ferguson Thomas C. Greer Jr. Jan Faver Hailey Stanley N. Helton A. Brian McLemore Marcia D. Moore Kenneth V. Neller L. Curt Niccum Carroll D. Osburn J. Paul Pollard Kathy J. Pulley Gregory E. Sterling James W. Thompson James Walters John Willis

Hermeneutics is the work of Hermes, the Greek demigod, a messenger from the gods and from the dead. Simon Perry sets out to explore the contemporary face of Hermes through a reading of Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). This parable has one distinguishing feature that marks it out from other ancient stories following the same basic storyline: that a visitor from the dead is not granted leave to return with a message to the land of the living. In order for Scripture to be heard, Hermes is not necessary. Where does this leave the role of hermeneutics? Perry looks to philosophers, ethicists, and theologians for an answer.

In this strikingly personal account of recent literary approaches to the Bible, Jeffrey Staley shows how people's life experiences relate to what they read in the Scriptures. He illustrates his argument from theories of autobiography, where recent literary and feminist critiques provide him with tools for reflecting upon his childhood on a Navajo reservation and his family's five generations of contact with the Navajo people in northern Arizona and New Mexico.Using Tony Hillerman's popular detective novels as a lens to refract his own childhood memories, Staley investigates how his cross-cultural childhood and family history have contributed to his understanding of the Fourth Gospel.By combining such diverse materials as popular fiction, medieval passion plays, cultural anthropology, rhetorical studies, and autobiographical reflection, Staley takes his readers on a fascinating spiritual and intellectual journey through the Gospel of John.