This volume offers a meeting between genre theory in biblical studies and the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, who continues to be immensely influential in literary criticism. Here Bakhtin comes face to face with a central area of biblical studies: the question of genre. The essays range from general discussions of genre through the reading of specific biblical texts to an engagement with Toni Morrison and the Bible. --From publisher's description.

In A Discourse and Register Analysis of the Prophetic Book of Joel, Colin M. Toffelmire presents a thorough analysis of the text of Joel from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. While traditional explorations of Joel generally engage the book from an historical or literary perspective, here Toffelmire examines syntactic and semantic patterning in the book, and builds from there toward a description of the linguistic register and context of situation that these linguistic patterns suggest. This work also showcases the usefulness of discourse analysis grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics for the analysis of ancient texts.

The Dictionary of the Bible and Ancient Media is a convenient and authoritative reference tool, introducing specific terms and concepts helpful to the study of the Bible and related literature in ancient communications culture. Since the early 1980s, biblical scholars have begun to explore the potentials of interdisciplinary theories of oral tradition, oral performance, personal and collective memory, ancient literacy and scribality, visual culture and ritual. Over time these theories have been combined with considerations of critical and exegetical problems in the study of the Bible, the history of Israel, Christian origins, and rabbinics. The Dictionary of the Bible and Ancient Media responds to the rapid growth of the field by providing a source of reference that offers clear definitions, and in-depth discussions of relevant terms and concepts, and the relationships between them. The volume begins with an overview of 'ancient media studies' and a brief history of research to orient the reader to the field and the broader research context of the book, with individual entries on terms and topics commonly encountered in studies of the Bible in ancient media culture. Each entry defines the term/ concept under consideration, then offers more sustained discussion of the topic, paying particular attention to its relevance for the study of the Bible and related literature

In spite of some scholars’ inclination to include the book of Jubilees as another witness to “Enochic Judaism,” the relationship of Jubilees to the apocalyptic writings and events surrounding the Maccabean revolt has never been adequately clarified. This book builds on scholarship on genre to establish a clear pattern among the ways Jubilees resembles and differs from other apocalypses. Jubilees matches the apocalypses of its day in overall structure and literary morphology. Jubilees also uses the literary genre to raise the issues typical of the apocalypses—including revelation, angels and demons, judgment, and eschatology—but rejects what the apocalypses typically say about those issues, subverting reader expectations with a corrected view. In addition to the main argument concerning Jubilees, this volume’s survey of what is fundamentally apocalyptic about apocalyptic literature advances the understanding of early Jewish apocalyptic literature and, in turn, of later apocalypses and comparable perspectives, including those of Paul and the Qumran sectarians.

"Dialogical Preaching - Bakhtin, Otherness and Homiletics" explores the genre of preaching in light of theories of dialogicity and carnivalization developed by Mikhail Bakhtin. The Bakhtinian approach to preaching evokes ways in which historical acts and embodied experiences are transcribed in literary genres. The theories of carnivalization manifest the dynamic, other-oriented, interaction between reflexive texts and embodied acts. Experiences of otherness and difference play a central role in human communication as well as in theological descriptions of the relationship between God and humans. One of the central aims of this book is to explore ways in which 'others', different from the designated preacher, influence contemporary preaching practices and in that sense can be seen as co-authors. As material for this investigation the book provides analyses of four theologians who have contributed significantly to contemporary homiletical developments, namely those of the American homileticians Charles Campbell, John S. McClure, and James H. Harris and the Danish Systematic Theologian, Svend Bjerg.The homiletical analyses lead to the thesis, that the dialogical encounter between author, and addressees, analyzer and analyzed, is one of the conditions of interpretation and communication rather than a disturbance. The communication theoretical and practical theological analyses are discussed in light of Kierkegaard`s, Barth`s and Jüngel's emphasis on the 'qualitative difference' between God and humans. These concluding reflections suggest ways in which inter-human otherness can function as a dynamically conjoining rather than mutually exclusive difference between God as the 'Wholly Other' and 'other-wise' humans.

The corpus coranicum eludes familiar categories and resists strict labels. No doubt the threads woven into the fabric are exceptionally textured, varied, and complex. Accordingly, the introductory chapter of this book demonstrates the application of form criticism to the text. Chapter two then presents a form-critical study of the prayer genre. It identifies three productive formulae and addresses distinct social settings and forms associated with them. The third chapter begins by defining the liturgy genre vis-à-vis prayer in the Qurʾān. Drawing a line between the hymn and litany forms, this chapter treats each in turn. Chapter four considers the genre classified as wisdom literature. It identifies sapiential formulae and sheds light on wisdom contexts. The fifth chapter examines the narrative genre writ large. It also surveys narrative blocks of the long saga. The subsequent chapter on the proclamation genre inspects a set of vocative formulae, which occurs in the messenger situation. The concluding chapter looks at the corpus through synchronic and diachronic lenses. In the end, Qurʾānic genres encapsulate the form-critical elements of formulae, forms, and settings, as well as an historical dimension.

Focusing specifically on the issue of genre methodology in Acts, Bale' work will have clear ramifications for the study of biblical texts in general. The first part of the work surveys the state of genre theory in Acts scholarship and demonstrates its inadequacy for both classifying and interpreting Acts. Bale constructs a new genre model rooted in contemporary genre theory, tackling the problematic issue in Biblical scholarship of the relationship between history and fiction in literature. From this theoretical analysis Bale presents a new, pragmatic model for genre which is non-exclusive and heavily intertextual. In part two Bale utilises the model in three original readings which draw heavily upon parallels from ancient literature. The first reading shows how a specific device at the beginning of Acts dictates interpretation. The second looks at the problem of Paul's status as apostle in Acts from a narrative rather than a propositional perspective. The final reading explores several passages in Acts which may instructively be read as incorporating themes and techniques from ancient comedy and related genres.