Cultural Interpretations: Reorienting New Testament Criticism
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
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.
- Explores the effect of sociocultural factors on the shaping of interpretation and understanding of New Testament passages
- Seeks to further the discussion concerning the process by which contextual presuppositions take place whe studying the New testament
- Approaches sociolinguistic considerations as integral to the study of the New Testament
Cultural Contexts and Biblical Interpretation
- Existential Interpretation
- The Gospel in Solentiname
- The Negro Spiritual
- The Sermon in the Black Church
Interpreting the Trial of Jesus in Mark
- Potential Meaning in Mark’s Trial Scenes
- Jesus the Redeemer
- Jesus the Tragic Hero
- Jesus the Revolutionary
- Jesus, Man of the People
- Beyond Interpretative Boundaries
A well-conceived, thoroughly researched, and elegantly written work, Cultural Intepretation 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
- Title: Cultural Interpretations: Reorienting New Testament Criticism
- Author: Brian K. Blount
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Print Publication Date: 12/14/1995
- Pages: 232
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Resource ID: LLS:CLTRLNTRPCRTCSM
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2021-01-06T17:17:38Z
Brian K. Blount is President Emeritus of Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA and Charlotte, NC. He was called to this position in 2007, after serving for 15 years as the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Princeton Theological Seminary.
An M.Div. graduate of Princeton Seminary in 1981, he obtained his B.A. from the College of William and Mary in 1978. After graduating from Princeton Seminary, he went on to become the pastor of the Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia from 1982-1988. William and Mary’s first African-American to receive membership in the Alpha Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society received his Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Emory University in 1992. He returned to teach at Princeton Seminary the same year. He was the 2011 Beecher Lecturer at the Yale Divinity School, Yale University. He served as the president of the Society of Biblical Literature from 2017-2018, and also served as the president of the Association of Theological Schools from 2018-2020.
Professor Blount’s primary work has been in the Gospel of Mark, the Book of Revelation, and in the areas of cultural studies, biblical hermeneutics, and apocalyptic theology.
The author of numerous articles, he also preaches and directs adult education classes in local congregations. He is married, and he and his wife, Sharon, have two children, Joshua and Kaylin.