The Work of Norman Perrin: An Intellectual Pilgrimage

Abstract

The place of Norman Perrin in the history of New Testament studies is difficult to assess because his vita and his style of scholarship defied conventional categories. He was, as he professed with a sense of pride and insight, Englishman by birth, a German by education, and an American by choice. This borderline status proved fertile with respect to his intellectual development. His journey encompassed a movement from historical-critical, to existentialist concerns, and on to redaction critical and literary hermeneutics. Monumental and definitive summations of learning in the manner of classical German scholarship were not to his liking, nor did he ever produce a major volume on Mark, despite his many outstanding contributions to that gospel. Indeed, the thought of an academic school tradition with its implications of foundational knowledge and fierce loyalties was essentially alien to him. What distinguished his mental capacity was a quick manner of extricating points of consequence from tangled discussions, an astonishing expressiveness, and a rapidly developing thinking along charted as well as uncharted courses.