Richard A. Horsley

The Case for Mark Composed in Performance

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This is a remarkable book. Just what we have been waiting for to help us understand Mark not only as an exciting story but also as an enlivening performance of the good news. Wire pulls together the challenging breakthroughs of recent research on various fronts that are forcing us to rethink some of the most basic assumptions of the modern study of Scripture. She ingeniously organizes her discussion around the objections often raised by those embedded in 'print-culture' who can't imagine that the Gospel of Mark could have been composed in oral performance. She patiently and clearly leads skeptical modern students and scholars step by step into the ancient world of oral communications where stories developed in the telling and retelling.”

The Invention of the Biblical Scholar

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“No one is more conversant in literary Theory than Moore and Sherwood, who have for some time been smuggling it into biblical studies in creative ways. As literary critics become less enamored of the promise of Theory, Moore and Sherwood see new possibilities for biblical scholars to move beyond the modernist obsession with 'the Enlightenment Bible' and engage theorists who are 'getting religion.' Their critique is sometimes caustic, always right–on; their manifesto points beyond traditional historical–critical methods, identity politics, and 'contextualization' for its own sake to a new, genuine universality that may shape the future of our discipline.”

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This is a timely tome! Just when most critical Jesus-scholars are seriously questioning standard assumptions, concepts, and procedures, Crossley and Keith present us with a plethora of fine articles on particular issues and aspects of Jesus. This fine collection is well worth mining, again and again, for information and insights.”

The Oral Ethos of the Early Church

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Joanna Dewey has been a pioneer in opening up the world of oral performance and the hearing of the gospel story, including the key role of women storytellers. Each new essay builds on the previous ones and leads to new insights as the gospel comes alive.”

The Parables of Jesus and the Problems of the World

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Christian theology has usually accepted the longer parables of Jesus as portraits of an authoritarian, obscenely wealthy and greedy, vindictive, and violent God who can, on occasion, become generous or forgiving. Richard Ford sees the complexity and the ambiguity and the malleability of the parables. He does not interpret the parables, but invites readers to explore and probe them as ways to discern what is (really) happening in current political-economic conflicts: the US conquest of Iraq and its oil, Wall Street's gambling with the US and world economy, the Western megabanks manipulation of smaller countries into debt, and fuel companies' generation of climate chaos. With his wide and deep knowledge of how the exploitative Roman imperial political-economic system worked to impoverish people in Palestine, he deftly uncovers the backstory behind these parables that have previously been taken as rather superficial 'slices of life.' With his remarkably wide knowledge of the hegemonic, US-dominated, global capitalist system and its predatory policies, he helps readers pull back the curtain of obfuscating corporate and government propaganda. Ford's Parables of Jesus and the Problems of the World is the most provocative, suggestive, and deeply unsettling book about the parables or any biblical material in many years.”

Why John Wrote a Gospel

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“This may be the first treatment of the fourth gospel that takes into account its predominantly oral communication environment. In a carefully crafted argument, Thatcher uses Maurice Halbwach's suggestive reflections on social memory to develop a series of provocative speculations about what lead from Johannine tradition to a written gospel. This book is sure to stir up some rethinking of the relation between the composition of John's Gospel and the social memory of the Johannine community in which it was embedded.”