{"id":14082,"date":"2019-09-15T05:49:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T09:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/?p=14082"},"modified":"2019-07-08T23:59:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T03:59:27","slug":"re-thinking-gospel-genre-after-richard-burridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2019\/09\/re-thinking-gospel-genre-after-richard-burridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Re-thinking Gospel Genre After Richard Burridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last year at ETS, one of the best papers I heard was by Zach Dawson on genre with a view to challenging Richard Burridge\u2019s view of genre in relation to Gospels.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Zach\u2019s paper is now published at the on-line journal\u00a0Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics\u00a0<\/em>with open access.<\/p>\n

The Problem of Gospel Genres: Unmasking a Flawed Consensus and Providing a Fresh Way Forward with Systemic Functional Linguistics Genre Theory<\/a><\/p>\n

Zachary K. Dawson<\/div>\n
McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
A wave of research that began in the late 1970s and culminated with Richard Burridge\u2019s What Are the Gospels? in 1992 effectively established the consensus that the Gospels are to be classified as ancient \u03b2\u03af\u03bf\u03b9. In this article, I respond to Burridge\u2019s work to demonstrate that his approach to genre is problematic in several ways, which calls the foundation of the current consensus into question. Following this ground clearing exercise, I articulate a way forward in how to understand the relationship between the Gospels\u2019 genre and their social purpose, which is more in keeping with modern genre theory, especially as it is envisioned by systemic-functional linguists. The last section of the article then demonstrates the potential benefits of using Systemic Functional Linguistics genre theory by means of a sample genre analysis of the Lord\u2019s Prayer in Matt 6:7\u201313, which demonstrates how to understand the social function of genres and opens an avenue for fresh research into the question of Gospel genres.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Keywords: genre theory, genre criticism, gospels, Systemic Functional Linguistics, register, \u03b2\u03af\u03bf\u03c2, ancient biography<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dawson concludes: \u2018From a SFL perspective, when we ask \u201cWhat are the Gospels?\u201d\u00a0we are actually asking \u201cWhat are the social goals of the\u00a0Gospels?\u201d This is a fundamentally different way of thinking\u00a0about genre than has previously been explored in Gospel studies.\u201d<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year at ETS, one of the best papers I heard was by Zach Dawson on genre with a view to challenging Richard Burridge\u2019s view of genre in relation to Gospels. Anyway, Zach\u2019s paper is now published at the on-line journal\u00a0Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics\u00a0with open access. The Problem of Gospel Genres: Unmasking a Flawed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRe-thinking Gospel Genre After Richard Burridge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last year at ETS, one of the best papers I heard was by Zach Dawson on genre with a view to challenging Richard Burridge's view of genre in relation to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2019\/09\/re-thinking-gospel-genre-after-richard-burridge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Re-thinking Gospel Genre After Richard Burridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last year at ETS, one of the best papers I heard was by Zach Dawson on genre with a view to challenging Richard Burridge's view of genre in relation to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2019\/09\/re-thinking-gospel-genre-after-richard-burridge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Euangelion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/michael.bird.33\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-15T09:49:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-09T03:59:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael F. 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