Abstract
Biblical Performance Criticism (BPC) analyzes communication events of biblical traditions for audiences. Every communication event of a tradition has four aspects: a communicator, traditions re-expressed, an audience, and a social situation. This essay surveys the history of BPC and its current prospects and points to the future work of developing a fine-grained theoretical foundation for its work. In the analytical mode, a scholar gathers and examines data from a past performance event to describe it, and its effects, in detail. In the heuristic mode, a performer presents a tradition to an audience in order to better understand its dynamics. In the practical mode, a person reflects on the performance of biblical traditions in daily life. In these ways, BPC reunites biblical scholarship fragmented by critical reduction, and bridges the academic and popular use of biblical traditions.
Highlights
Biblical traditions have been presented and re-presented in various ways throughout history.1The Bible itself indicates ways that its early audiences may have experienced it
Biblical Performance Criticism incorporates the insights of many disciplines and reframes those disciplines to analyze communication events rather than texts and contexts
Many contributions were made by scholars of this first stage of Biblical Performance Criticism (BPC), more than can be listed here. We can summarize these as follows: (1) they exposed how the Bible was misunderstood if it was reduced down to one element rather than the interaction of all four elements; (2) as a result, they opened up a new space in scholarship for re-conceiving the composition, performance, and reception of biblical traditions; (3) they restored the embodiment of these traditions as an analytical category; (4) they highlighted overlooked or minimized evidence for the role of memory, delivery, emotion, sound, physical space, and audience interaction; and (5), they proved the value of modern face-to-face performances of texts for both performers and audiences to better understand their dynamics and impact
Summary
Biblical traditions have been presented and re-presented in various ways throughout history.. Acts portrays Paul and other apostles summarizing the history of Israel, climaxing with Jesus, to people gathered in synagogues (e.g., Acts 13:16–41). Paul asks that his letters be read to all believers in Thessalonika (1 Thess 5:27). John expects the book of Revelation to be read aloud, likely to many audiences (Rev 1:3) These examples suggest the ways in which almost all the biblical material functioned in communication events. Meaning-making is not restricted to any one of these four elements but occurs in the ephemeral communication event and its processing by participants during and after the event As both epistemology and method, BPC is used analytically, heuristically, or practically. See https://www.biblicalperformancecriticism.org/ for more resources and bibliography
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