Date
5-25-2023
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Chair
Richard Alan Fuhr
Keywords
Biblical Narrative Criticism
Disciplines
English Language and Literature
Recommended Citation
Oakes, Todd Michael, "Making and Meaning in the Study of Biblical Stories: A Case for a Unified Approach to Narrative Criticism" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 4398.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4398
Abstract
The purpose of this study is threefold and involves looking across the disciplines of literary theory and criticism, hermeneutics, exegesis, and theology in the analysis of biblical literature. In the areas of literary theory and criticism this involves looking at poetics, modern linguistic theory, structuralist criticism, mimetic theory, and the elements of narrative storytelling. For hermeneutics we will measure how one might best interpret a story comparing the differences between text-centered, reader-centered, and author-centered approaches. Regarding exegesis we will advance an argument for the adoption of the grammatical-historical method over any other. This will allow us to make a case for the advancement of a new (and hopefully unifying) approach to biblical narrative criticism that attends to the making and meaning of biblical stories by performing both exegesis and literary analysis which will render a better understanding of the theological and ethical teaching and messages of these narratives.
