How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing: Using Formative Narrative Approach and Narrative Discourse Analysis
Ebook
This book aims to understand God's interactions with Abraham in relation to God's command that Abraham "be a blessing" (Gen 12:2d), which is directly tied to God's goal that "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Gen 12:3b). The book proposes a formative narrative approach to examine interactions between character and plot, the movement of plot, and the connection between sequential plots. An analysis of thirteen Abrahamic narratives (Gen 12-22) suggests a classification based on four different types of interactions between God and Abraham, which indicate how cooperation and conflict between God and Abraham advance the narrative's plot. The book then proposes a narrative discourse analysis to examine how Abraham evolved through different stages of the narrative by moving from deviation to cooperation. Detailed analysis of this transformation process reveals three turning points in Abraham's life. The formative narrative approach and narrative discourse analysis proposed in this book can contribute to the analysis of two important aspects of Old Testament narratives: the formation of plot and the cause-and-effect structure in narrative discourse.
“In How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing, Qiang Fu uses formative narrative analysis and narrative discourse analysis of the Abraham cycle in Genesis 12–22 to explore God’s promise that Abraham would ‘be a blessing.’ This volume explores how God’s interactions with Abraham fulfill that promise and transform him into a model mediator of God’s plan that all human families have a relationship with him.”
—John D. Harvey, professor of New Testament, Columbia Biblical Seminary
“Most enlightening is Qiang Fu’s unfolding of the central theme of Genesis 12–22, God’s command to Abraham to be (with imperative force) a blessing. Through the interplay and flow of pericopae, he shows how the narrative reveals God’s interaction with Abraham, forming him into the agent of blessing he is commanded to be. The pastoral applications to spiritual formation are significant.”
—John Hilber, professor of Old Testament, McMaster Divinity College
“Beyond isolated episodes, here is a method of discourse that is applied to the entire Abraham story. This interpretive analysis should find its way into the next generation of commentaries and literary studies.”
—Andrew Schmutzer, professor of Bible, Moody Bible Institute
“Qiang Fu delivers surprisingly new insights into the Abrahamic narrative of Genesis 12–22. Through analysis of the plot and narrative structure, three movements of obedience to God’s commands are contrasted with three movements of deviation. Fu’s rich and personally enlightening exegesis pulls Abraham from an old flat narrative as a hero of faith into the reality of a flawed human through whom God intervened to transform him into a person of blessing. In this process, Fu rescues the imperative phrase ‘be a blessing’ from a formulaic platitude into a dynamic mission.”
—Ingrid Faro, associate professor of Old Testament, Scandinavian School of Theology
- Title: How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing: Using Formative Narrative Approach and Narrative Discourse Analysis
- Authors: Richard E. Averbeck, Qiang Fu
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666755466, 9781666755442, 1666755443, 9781666755459, 1666755451, 166675546X
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666755466
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-03-05T10:59:30Z
Qiang Fu holds doctorate degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Stanford University. He is now serving internationally in the area of theological training.