In this volume, the ongoing debate regarding the genre of the Gospels is given new impetus through contributions from diverse methodological perspectives, which disclose new stirrings and sightings of broader, more heuristically promising literary, rhetorical, and cultural registers which intersect in ancient narrative.

The Gospels continue to defy efforts to fix 'generic' boundaries for determining their meanings. This volume discloses new stirrings and sightings of broader, more heuristically promising literary, rhetorical, and cultural registers which intersect in ancient narrative . The contributors seek to build upon or vigorously critique current generic hypotheses (biography, history, tragedy); to introduce recent insights and developments in genre theory; to probe ancient reception of the Gospels as works of literature; and to illuminate the relations between the literary characteristics of the Gospels and methodological advances in narratology, social memory, intertextuality, and performance.

Autorentext
Born 1971; 2011 PhD in New Testament and Early Christian Literature from the University of Chicago; since 2016 Research Assistant to the A. A. Bradford Chair, Texas Christian University (USA). 1983 Dr.theol., University of Basel (Switzerland); since 2008 Honorary Research Associate in the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria (South Africa); since 2010 Faculty Associate in New Testament, Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands); since 2012 A.A. Bradford Chair and Professor of Religion, Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas, USA); since 2019 Senior Fellow of the 'Centre for Advanced Studies' (Regensburg, Germany). Geboren 1967; 2000 Dr. theol.; 2005-07 Professor für Neues Testament an der Radboud Universität Nimwegen, Niederlande; seit 2007 Professor für Exegese und Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments an der Universität Regensburg; Research Associate an der University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, Südafrika; seit 2018 Leiter des Centre for Advanced Studies "Beyond Canon" an der Universität Regensburg; seit 2019 Adjunct Ordinary Professor an der Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., USA.

Inhalt
David P. Moessner/Tobias Nicklas/Robert Matthew Calhoun: Introduction

Part One: The Question of Genre and the Gospels
Richard A. Burridge: The Gospels and Ancient Biography: 25 Years On, 1993-2018 - Werner H. Kelber: On "Mastering the Genre" - Michal Beth Dinkler: What Is a Genre? Contemporary Genre Theory and the Gospels - Elizabeth E. Shively: A Critique of Richard Burridge's Genre Theory: From a One-Dimensional to a Multi-Dimensional Approach to Gospel Genre - Carl Johan Berglund: The Genre(s) of the Gospels: Expectations from the Second Century - Sandra Huebenthal: What's Form Got to Do with It? Preliminaries on the Impact of Social Memory Theory for the Study of Biblical Intertextuality

Part Two: Mark as Narrative in the Light of Ancient and Modern Criticism
Cilliers Breytenbach: The Gospel According to Mark: The Yardstick for Comparing the Gospels with Ancient Texts - Margaret M. Mitchell: Mark, the Long-Form Pauline - Stefan Alkier: Das Markusevangelium als Tragikomödie lesen - David P. Moessner: Mark's Mysterious 'Beginning' (1:1-3) as the Hermeneutical Code to Mark's 'Messianic Secret' - C. Clifton Black: The Kijé Effect: Revenants in the Markan Passion Narrative - Justin Marc Smith: Famous (or Not So Famous) Last Words: Last and Dying Words in Greco-Roman Biography and Mark 15:34 Revisited - Geert Van Oyen: Actio According to Quintilian ( Institutio oratoria 11.3) and the Performance of the Gospel of Mark

Part Three: The Growth of the Gospel Tradition in Early Christian Literary Culture
R. Alan Culpepper: The Foundations of Matthean Ethics - Wolfgang Grünstäudl: Continuity and Discontinuity in Luke's Gospel: Luke 9:51 and the Pre-Jerusalem Phase as a Test Case - John A. Darr: Reading Luke-Acts as Scriptural History and Philosophical Biography: A Pragmatic Approach to Lukan Intertextuality and Genre - Thomas R. Hatina: Intertextual Transformations of Jesus: John as Mnemomyth - Paul N. Anderson: Revelation and Rhetoric in John 9:1-10:21: Two Dialogical Modes Operative within the Johannine Narrative - Tobias Nicklas: Second-Century Gospels as "Re-Enactments" of Earlier Writings: Examples from the Gospel of Peter