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Books by Brian K. Blount
Cultural
Interpretations /
Then
The Whisper Put On Flesh /
Go
Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message
Can I Get A Witness /
True to Our Native Land
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Reviews
Cultural
Interpretations: Reorienting New Testament Criticism
By Brian K. Blount Building on insights into the social
functions of language, especially its interpersonal dimensions,
Blount constructs a culturally sensitive model of interpretation
that provides a sound basis for ethnographic and popular, as well
as historical-critical, readings of the biblical text.
Blount's framework does more than acknowledge the inevitability
of multiple interpretations; it foments them. His analysis
demonstrates the social intent of every reading and shows the
influence of communicative context in such diverse readings of
the Bible as Rudolf Bultmann's, the peasants of Solentiname, the
Negro spirituals, and black church sermons. Then Blount turns to
Mark's account of the trial of Jesus, where he shows how this
hermeneutical scheme helps to assess the emergence and validity
of multiple readings of the text and the figure of Jesus.
Blount's expansive interpretive proposal will help scholars and
students open up the possibilities of the text without
abandoning it
-- Fortress Press,
Publisher
A
well-conceived, thoroughly researched, and elegantly written
work,
Cultural
Interpretations: Reorienting New Testament Criticism establishes Blount as a
sophisticated voice with new and provocative challenges for
church, academy, and culture. As a demonstration of the power of
sociolinguistics for 'de-centering' and establishing the
cultural variability of biblical interpretation, his book has
far reaching ramifications for biblical scholarship. . . .
Required reading for all serious students of the Bible,
--Vincent L. Wimbush,
Union Theological Seminary, New York City Contents
| Preface |
vii |
|
1 A Contextual Approach to new
Testament Interpretation |
1 |
| Part
One Cultural Contexts and Biblical
Interpretation |
|
| 2
Existential Interpretation |
27 |
| 3
The Gospel in Solentiname |
41 |
|
4 The Negro Spiritual |
55 |
| 5
The Sermon in the Black Church |
71 |
| Part Two Interpreting the Trial of Jesus in
Mark |
|
| 6
Potential Meaning in Mark's Trial Scenes |
89 |
| 7
Jesus the Redeemer |
111 |
| 8
Jesus the Tragic Hero |
128 |
| 9
Jesus the Revolutionary |
143 |
| 10
Jesus Man of the People |
159 |
|
11 Beyond Interpretative Boundaries |
175 |
|
Notes |
185 |
|
Bibliography |
213 |
|
Indexes |
219 |
|
