This volume of twenty essays (nineteen in English, one in German) is a collection of papers given at a conference at Texas Christian University in 2018 in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary, and third edition, of Richard Burridge's What are the Gospels? (Waco, Tx 2018). The volume is divided into three broad categories: (1.) ‘The Question of Genre and the Gospels’; (2.) ‘Mark as Narrative in the Light of Ancient and Modern Criticism’; and (3.) ‘The Growth of the Gospel Tradition in Early Christian Literary Culture’. These categories accurately represent the contents of the work, with parts i and ii more cohesive than part iii.
Following a brief introduction, the volume opens with a chapter by Burridge, ‘The Gospels and ancient biography’ (pp. 9–56). This piece summarises the opening chapter of his third edition, which outlines the reception of his work over the past two decades. Both Michel Beth Dinkler, in ‘What is a genre?’ (pp. 77–96), and Elizabeth E. Shively, in ‘A critique of Richard Burridge's genre theory’ (pp. 97–112), specifically address the question of genre and genre theory. Dinkler and Shively, mobilising Foucault and cognitive prototype theory, respectively, challenge the need by scholars to identify a work's (often-single) genre and encourage the adoption of new theoretical frames.
Some contributors reassess the priority of genre theory and question the view of the Gospels as biography. Cilliers Breytenbach, ‘The Gospel according to Mark’ (pp. 179–200), challenges the presupposition of a biography genre in the first century, arguing that analytical comparison needs to precede illustrative comparison (i.e., comparing Mark with possible generically-related texts). Thomas R. Hatina, in ‘Intertextual transformation of Jesus’ (pp. 417–40), views John's Gospel through the lens of social commemoration and ideological mythmaking (or ‘mnemomythic reception process’), which, he argues, undermines reading John emically as a bios.
Literary readings of the Gospels dominate this volume, but scholars adopt a variety of approaches. In ‘The Kijé effect’ (pp. 273–305), C. Clifton Black applies a narratological reading of Mark, arguing that the parallels and duplication of events in the crucifixion narrative (Mark xiv–xvi) show that Mark was a ‘stylist with considerable ability’ (p. 303). Wolfgang Grünstäudl, ‘Continuity and discontinuity in Luke's Gospel’ (pp. 381–96), re-evaluates the claim that Luke ix.51 is the literary hinge of the Gospel and argues that Luke ix–x should be read as a unit because of narrative repetitions. John A. Darr's audience-orientated (or ‘pragmatic’) approach, in ‘Reading Luke-Acts as scriptural history and philosophical biography’ (pp. 397–416), highlights the importance of the genre-readings lens(es) for ancient authors, especially in light of the ‘primacy effect’.
Two texts adopt a presentation approach, Werner Kelber, ‘On “mastering the genre”’ (pp. 57–76) and Geert Van Oyen, ‘Actio according to Quintilian (Institutio oratoria 11.3) and the Performance of the Gospel of Mark’ (pp. 335–56). Kelber challenges Burridge's claim that correct identification of a work's genre is the primary means by which a text is understood. Rather, adopting the narrative approach and embracing the concept of textual pluriformity, Kelber argues that we need to move away from our modern presumptions of authorship and texts and adopt a perspective akin to that implicitly understood by the ancients. Van Oyen, taking his point of departure from Quintilian, argues that written texts need to be embodied in reading performance in order to capture the full emotional import of the text. Stefan Alkier (‘Das Markusevangelium als Tragikomödie lesen’, pp. 219–42) reads Mark's Gospel as having both tragic (i.1–15,46) and comedic (xv.47–xvi.8) elements that play with intratextual parallels.
A number of chapters adopt an historic lens for their study, placing the Gospels in their ancient literary setting. Justin Marc Smith, in ‘Famous (or not so famous) last words’ (pp. 307–33), reads Jesus’ death scene as participating in the noble death evidenced in Graeco-Roman and Jewish literature. Carl Johan Berglund, in ‘The genre(s) of the Gospels’ (pp. 113–44), takes a historical approach by scrutinising how the Gospels were received in the second century, positing that the expectations exhibited by early readers show that they thought that the Gospels participated in multiple genres. Similarly, Tobias Nicklas, in ‘Second-century Gospels as “Re-enactments” of earlier writings’ (pp. 471–85), argues that the use of gospel material in the second century for new works that also incorporate new details implies that the Gospels, later defined as canonical, may not have been as constraining to literary creativity as once thought.
The Gospels’ relationship with Scripture is evaluated through a number of lenses, including some of the approaches mentioned above. Sandra Huebenthal, ‘What's form got to do with it?’ (pp. 145–76), investigates the use of Isaiah in Mark and John through the perspective of social memory theory, arguing that Isaiah was an important ‘frame’ for early Christian readers. Margaret M. Mitchell's ‘Mark and the long-form Pauline εὐαγγέλιον’ (pp. 201–17) evaluates visual depictions of Mark in ancient manuscripts, especially those in which he is paired with the Apostle Paul, suggesting a deeper relationship between the two individuals.
The quality of the contributions is consistently high and the volume will be of relevance for anyone interested the study of the Gospels and the application of genre theory. The diversity of approaches and methodologies may be daunting, given that the authors regularly assume that their readers will know technical literary terms and the theory behind them. The binding element of this volume is the centrality of Burridge's What are the Gospels? The respective authors recognise that this was a pivotal contribution and that it continues to exert influence within the field of gospel studies. However, the contributors also argue that the framework adopted by Burridge is no longer the constraining theory and that advances in our understanding of genre have moved the field in new directions. For many of the authors, Burridge's work remains an important touchstone, but only insofar as one can measure one's movement away from it.
