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Book Review: What Is Narrative Criticism? ::
Perhaps not the question on everyone’s lips, but David Thurston looks at a book that could be a useful addition to your library.
Source: Perspective Vo1 No3 © Perspective 1999
Author: Mark Allan Long
Published: Fortress Press
Reviewer: Dave Thurston
ONCE UPON A TIME, there was the need to take a different approach to certain parts of the Bible. For God not only did things (facts), he also spoke (interpreted the facts) in certain ways. And those ways were often in the form of a narrative, or a story. Take, for example, the famous narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
In the olden days, of course, we simply looked at these narratives, and said “Facts are facts.” And we’d happily weave together the accounts from each writer to create hypothetical “harmonies” of the gospels.
Recently, however, it has been realised that a new dedicated approach was needed to properly interpret Biblical narratives. This method was needed not to eclipse the historico-critical method used by most of our commentaries, but to yield new insights and boldly go where the old commentaries could not go. The new methodology is called “Narrative Criticism.”
In his book What is Narrative Criticism, Allan Powell does a great job of explaining Narrative Criticism in simple terms, delineating it from other approaches to the Bible and secular literature. More importantly, Powell explains how to use Narrative Criticism, with .he synoptic gospels as the theatre of application.
In a nutshell, the approach is one that sees a narrative work, such as the gospel of Mark, as a complete unit in itself. As such it is self-consistent, and all considerations as to meaning and purpose must be determined from within the text itself. That’s not to say that insights of the culture and history of the period are unimportant – as usual, the more background we have, the better.
However, the key to Narrative criticism is to consider the text from the perspective of the “implied author” and “implied reader”, both of whom are determined by “signatures” within the text. Then the narrative is considered as a function of Events (Powell’s Chapter 4), Characters (Chapter 5) and Settings (Chapter 6), which together form the plot. Naturally, within each of these areas there are further considerations.
The exciting thing about Powell’s book is watching as he applies these principles to the gospels we know so well, “earthing” the theory and making it accessible. He demonstrates, for example, the different narrative functions of the Pharisees in each of the three gospels. In chapter 7 Powell provides a whole series of questions to ask when we’re dealing with narrative sections in the Bible.
I’m impressed with What is Narrative Criticism, first of all because it explains difficult concepts so simply. Better still, Powell applies what he says at every level with concrete examples, helping me work through the methodology in material I know. Best of all, the book puts these tools in my hands as a preacher – it immediately helps me to glean new insights from well-worn texts.
So will I have a fire sale of all my older commentaries? Certainly not. Narrative Criticism is simply another arrow in my quiver, helping me better explain God’s Word to his people – and helping me come to grips with what the Ghost writer of all Scripture wants his people to know, in the way he chose to tell it.
However there are some qualifications. While we must consider the text in itself, there’s a wider context we need to deal with as well – the whole of Scripture. Chapter 6 concerns the benefits and draw-backs of Narrative Criticism, and some of Powell’s proposals are not consistent with an evangelical mind-set. But as always, a knife can be used either to spread butter or to kill – it all depends on who you are and how you use it.
Narrative Criticism – the art of reading Scripture as story – must never be allowed to function as a haven for those who don’t believe the events of salvation history. Because as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, if the Resurrection didn’t really happen then we’re simply deluded fools who are still in our sin. And that means there’ll be no “happily ever after”
Dave Thurston