Ep. 22 - “The Gospels as Stories” by Jeannine K. Brown | Book Review
Episode Transcript
Ep. 22 - The Gospels as Stories by Jeannine K. Brown - Brook Review
[00:00:00] JC Schroeder: "The plotting effect of such minimal attention to the central antagonists is to heighten Jesus' own agency in his coming suffering and death. He willingly moves toward Jerusalem where he will be crucified."
[00:00:15] Hello friends. That was a quote about Luke's intentional storytelling techniques and it comes from Jeannine Brown's book, The Gospels as Stories, a Narrative Approach to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This book offers a helpful and neglected way of interpreting the Gospels. It is, in my opinion, just a must read. So in today's episode, I'm going to be giving you my thoughts and review of this book. So let's dive into it. I'm JC Schroeder, and this is Bite Size Seminary.
[00:00:48]
[00:00:48] Overview of Book
[00:00:48] JC Schroeder: So again today in this [00:01:00] episode, I'm going to be talking about Jeannine Brown's book, The Gospels as Stories. It's published by Baker Academic in 2020. And it comes in just under 200 pages. Now, this is more of an academic book, but this is the great part of it is that it is without a lot of that burdensome academic language. It is really an easy read and quite enjoyable. An interested reader would tremendously benefit from this book, as well as many others who have more advanced biblical training.
[00:01:34] One of the things that Brown describes in sort of the beginning of the book is this, sort of, reading problem that has occurred in scholarly circles and has filtered down to the church as well. Is that we have read the Gospels in little dare we say bite-size chunks. We read them as individual sayings or as individual stories. And we don't really have [00:02:00] a good understanding nor do we intentionally read them as a whole, as being connected. And this is what Brown seeks to bring us back to is reading the Gospels as whole documents, not just as individual things that Jesus did and said, but as a entire story that the Lord inspired with the human authors to present the life of Jesus. So spoiler alert, I guess. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Go check it out. It's fabulous.
[00:02:32] Structure of Book
[00:02:32] JC Schroeder: Now in terms of the book's structure, it begins with a brief introduction as it's first chapter. This sets the tone and the definitions and all of that for the rest of the book. After that Brown deals with four main issues of how to approach the Gospels from a narrative perspective, of treating them like stories. So she's got four main issues that she deals with. [00:03:00] And with each of these issues, she has one chapter that describes one of those issues. And then a chapter that follows that description of that method or issue with an example of how it is practiced with one of the Gospels. So for instance, the second chapter deals with plot and plotting. Here she deals with what this looks like, what this means. And then she shows, in the gospel of Luke, what the plot is and how Luke has intentionally laid out the plot of his Gospel. So that's the kind of the basic structure of this book. You have a chapter on really teaching about this narrative process and this way of reading the Gospels as story, and then a chapter about how this actually flushes out and what this would actually look like. So in that first chapter of a section, you have the concept being taught. And then in that second corresponding chapter, you [00:04:00] have it been caught, if you will.
[00:04:02] So here, the reader comes away with the narrative reading practices, as well as being shown how they are actually implemented. So you don't just learn, here's the steps you do. You see them in action. There are a lot of examples through even the main teaching chapters. But it is helpful, I think, to see a full and fuller explanation in those secondary chapters that flesh it out much, much more.
[00:04:27] So I think there's kind of some pros and cons to this. It's a pro that you can just read the chapters that are the teaching chapters. And you can get the, kind of the basics of what reading the Gospels as stories of the, of this narrative criticism, how that works without seeing them implemented in the actual gospels. So, you can shorten your reading there a little bit, but it is also helpful to read them with the corresponding chapters, because this can help give you. Um, This can help shape your own [00:05:00] expectations of what you should be looking for. As well as like our own imaginations as readers of what we are looking for ourselves and how we implement these narrative techniques ourselves.
[00:05:10] Now another subsequent follow-up to having these dedicated chapters to each Gospel is that the reader comes away with a greater appreciation for the literary richness of the Gospel. And serves not really as, um, a full fledged introduction to the Gospels or to the Gospels, even as stories, but it's an wonderful entry point. I found myself at several points, underlining a whole lot and writing down some notes to add into my own slides and notes for when I teach on the Gospels. So this book is jam packed with good methodology, as well as how that methodology plays out in our interpretation of the Gospels. So I think having the teaching section and then the practical section [00:06:00] is really great. And as a pro you could also argue that it's a con as well, because you're adding additional text to the book, that maybe is not necessary, that maybe is not needed. Because you have examples in the teaching chapters. But I like them because it just gives a fuller explanation as, uh, as already said, It just really shapes the tone. It shapes the perspective and the expectation for me as the reader, when I come to the text of what sort of things I need to be looking for in the text. So that's the book as a whole, some pros and cons then. You should get it. It's fabulous.
[00:06:41] Chapter 1 - Narrative Criticism
[00:06:41] JC Schroeder: Now a little bit more detail on the individual sections is here in chapter one. It begins with really a short and helpful introduction to approaching the Gospels as stories or narrative criticism. And brown says that this is just simply reading the Gospels as a whole. She says this on page [00:07:00] 10. And she goes back to this idea that the academy and the church has really atomized the reading of the Gospels, individual sections instead of reading the whole story together. So in chapter one, she deals with some basic definitions. And what that approach in narrative criticism looks like. She has some helpful distinctions about the role of the author of the text, as well as the reader. Now, this sort of discussion about author and reader is a difficult philosophical and weighty discussion, and it can be very confusing. It's a difficult hermeneutical discussion, but Brown does a really great job of simplifying the material without making it simplistic. It's fairly easy to understand.
[00:07:49] Jeannine Brown has another great book, which I love Scripture as Communication, which is an overall approach to interpreting Scripture. It's really great. And there she gets into, [00:08:00] more of the weeds of the theoretics behind our hermeneutical approach. And. I find that when I assign it as reading, sometimes my students get a little bit lost because it is deep stuff. Here in this book, Gospels as Stories, Brown does, uh, I don't want to say better job, but it's much more digestible discussing these topics of author reader and our approach to Scripture. It's much more condensed, not as theoretical here in this book, as Scripture as Communication, but very digestible. So that's her introduction in chapter one.
[00:08:39] Chap. 2-3 - Plot and Plotting
[00:08:39] JC Schroeder: Then she has two chapters on plot and plotting. This is her part two. She says this quote, "Plotting refers to the way the story is framed and told." And here the focus is on arrangement, not necessarily action. So she wants us to pay attention to [00:09:00] how the authors of Scripture have written and arranged, the different stories and sayings that Jesus and others have made how they have been brought together and arranged in a specific way. Each of the individual Gospel authors have a general chronology for the life of Jesus. But they will take different things from different points of Jesus' life and arrange them in their own way. And so paying attention to those different sequences is really necessary to that outline of the life of Christ in the Gospel. And so that's her whole point with plotting and plot.
[00:09:40] In chapter three, she deals with that use of plot specifically in the Gospel of Luke. And one of the things that I find interesting in the Gospel of Luke is that there is a heavy preference in his description of Jesus's life on Jesus's travel to [00:10:00] Jerusalem. It encompasses a large part of the gospel from chapter nine, verse 51, all the way to chapter 19 verse 27. And this is where that quote came in from the beginning, this is where Brown says "The plotting effect of such minimal attention to the central antagonists is to heighten Jesus's own agency in his coming suffering and death. He willingly moves toward Jerusalem where he will be crucified." And that comes from page 56. And one of Luke's emphases here in this section is emphasizing that Jesus must go to Jerusalem, that everything is driving to him, going to Jerusalem, and it is his choice that he is going there. And that is a dominant motif throughout this massive section of Luke's Gospel.
[00:10:47] So recognizing that sort of consistent theme throughout this section helps us to better understand the Gospel of Luke as a whole, as well as those individual stories [00:11:00] within that larger section.
[00:11:02] Chap. 4-5 - Character and Characterization
[00:11:02] JC Schroeder: Chapters four and five are part of part three where Brown talks about character and characterization. Now she says this quote "Characterization is the art of bringing to life, the characters in a story, through what they say and do. And in relation to other characters in the story. Later she says, narrative authors always characterize the persons in their stories, they have historical purposes as they pursue characterization and they also have theological purposes." Pages 65 to 66.
[00:11:33] So the emphasis here on character and characterization is how does the author present a specific person? What sort of attributes are they given? Are they viewed positively, negatively, et cetera. She has a helpful list of different things that we can look for. What a character says, what a character does. What other characters say in relation to that character, so many different things that we can observe and pay attention to in [00:12:00] how our view of a character is characterized and presented to us in that particular gospel. And she notes in on page 80 that this works along with the initial plotting features that were discussed in chapters two and three.
[00:12:17] Then in chapter five, dealing with characterization, she sees how Matthew has his own particular strategy of characterizing the disciples. She goes through a lot about the Matthew's characterization of the disciples. But one that I thought was interesting is how the disciples we're chosen to be with Jesus. Yet they abandoned him. But they are restored by Jesus with him at the end of the narrative. So, in Mark, we're left just wondering, will they be restorative this promise from the angel that they will be restored, that Jesus is longing to be with them again, but in Matthew you have them specifically with Jesus and he restores them. And [00:13:00] this creates a contrast between Jesus and his disciples, that he is the faithful one that even though he, they have failed. He remains faithful that he is with them right there. That's that line at the end. The very last thing that Jesus says I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
[00:13:19] Chap. 6-7 - Intertextuality
[00:13:19] JC Schroeder: Then in part four, in chapters, six and seven, she deals with intertextuality. Chapter six is again that chapter, the. The teaching chapter on the specific topic. And intertextuality, this is what she calls "varied ways the evangelists engage the Old Testament". This is from page 107 and she talks about how there are direct citations of the text of the Old Testament in use by the New Testament, which is there's been a lot of work on as well as there's also illusions and echos. And a lot of the focus by academics has been on the actual [00:14:00] citation of the Old Testament. When is this line, this phrase, or this verse is mentioned from the Old Testament into the New Testament. And she talks about that. It's very helpful. But another thing that she emphasizes is, even the New Testament evoking and referencing the Old Testament not explicitly. So she talks about how "stories are evoking story." So there are things in the New Testament, stories that are told in the New Testament that evoke a connection to the stories from the Old Testament.
[00:14:35] And in chapter seven, she deals with how this plays out in the Gospel of John. So she talks about really two kind of stories, evoking stories, as she says on page 113 of Jesus as the Passover lamb, and then the renewal of creation. And her point in using John as an example of intertextuality is that John does not directly [00:15:00] site, the Old Testament very frequently. It's under the surface, if you will. And so this is why it's such a helpful illustration, is that for only looking for direct quotes or direct illusions to specific verses, we're going to be left wanting, or we're going to see John as he's not really using the Old Testament. When in reality, the, a lot of different elements of the Old Testament are heavily influencing John and his presentation of Jesus.
[00:15:27] Chap. 8-9 - Narrative Theology
[00:15:27] JC Schroeder: Part five deals with narrative theology. This is in chapters eight and nine. This is where she kind of brings all of the themes and perspectives, and approaches with narrative criticism together into one. And how that shapes the theology of the text. Her emphasis in the section is that sometimes when we are looking for theology, we are looking for statements, propositions. [00:16:00] This is true about God. This is you know, et cetera. Things that we can state and then believe. And she argues that theology is not always presented as propositions. It is very frequently presented as propositions, but not exclusively. Theology is also presented in a narrative form. And that's the whole point of the Gospels being in this story, narrative format is presenting the life and death and resurrection of Jesus in this theological way. It's not just giving straight history. And that's why we have it in this story format. It is there also to theologize. Its theological history.
[00:16:41] So she uses all of the techniques that she's already talked about, brings them together, and brings them to bear on the Gospel of mark and chapter nine and deals with the very actions of God and how they're described by Mark. And how this creates a sort of theology proper about who God is.[00:17:00]
[00:17:00] Chap. 10 - Conclusion
[00:17:00] JC Schroeder: Her final chapter, chapter 10 is a short conclusion, where she just reiterates what she's been hitting home most of the most of the book where she says, "The story is the first point of entry into the Gospel. Story is informed by history, leads us to theology, and theologizing." That's on page 184. And her point, if I'm understanding her correctly, is that in order for us to get the history right, and the theology, right, we have to understand the story, right. And that's her help in this book. This is a fabulous book. It is very approachable, easy to read and a wonderful addition to our hermeneutical toolbox as we read the Gospels.
[00:17:45] That's all we have for today. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget, you can find more information at my website, www.bitesizeseminary.com, including a full transcription of today's episode, as well as links to connect with me on [00:18:00] Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time.