Exegesis
meaning of biblical stories in their original context
Reflections on The Mary Magdalene Tradition: Witness and Counterwitness in Early Christian Communities [Liturgical Press, 2004] and Performance Criticism
The study calls attention to the complexity of the performance context:
- It is not sufficient to be attentive to the story’s narrative.
- It is necessary to offer analysis of storyteller, story, and audience in relation to a particular context.
- Storytelling events are acts of persuasion, and often engage contested ground.
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As I understand the point of this conference, we have a week to be together and discuss issues relating to storytelling and the early (and recent) church, and thus the point of our papers is to facilitate those oral discussions. In line with that understanding of this conference, I will use this paper as an opportunity to introduce my work related to oral composition and performance to participants who may not be familiar with it and to suggest some things related to our topic that I have been thinking about and would like to discuss during our time together.
The thing that interests me most the oral performance of gospel stories is the different way that meaning is created in oral communication events compared to the silent reading or even modern communal reading of texts. The beginning point of my thinking about the meaning of oral communication events was my reading of Werner Kelber's Oral and Written Gospel, but as I have worked on these issues, it has developed quite a bit. At this point, the clear distinction which the early Kelber made between oral and written communication in early Christianity has been generally abandoned in favor of a more complex view. Most importantly for my own work is the realization that written texts were generally presented as oral communication events in the ancient Mediterranean world.
My research related to storytelling and orality has been focused on the composition and performance of extended narratives, especially of the Gospel of Mark. In addition I have consistently tried in my exegetical work to take into account the way that the oral performance of gospel narratives would affect the meaning which they conveyed in a first century setting...
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Biblical Storytelling and Biblical Scholarship
Tom Boomershine, United Theological Seminary 2004
This paper is a further development of a paper written for a session of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media Group at SBL in 2002. It was the response to this paper that generated the idea of having this conference. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the major differences that biblical storytelling has made in my understanding of the meaning and function of the four Gospels in their original historical context. While there are implications for all biblical stories, I will focus attention here on the canonical Gospels.
The need to establish storytelling as a methodology for the study of biblical narrative was made clear in a conversation several years ago with Bob Tannehill. In response to my argument about the importance of storytelling, he said, “Why does storytelling make any difference? Whether I tell it or read it, it’s all the same narrative.” This is a response to Bob’s question...
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