Abstract
From at least as far back as the advent of form criticism, the recognition that the biblical texts emerged in contexts in which orality played a significant role has been a shaping force in modern biblical criticism. Often, however, that insight has faded into the background as historical, literary, and other interests have taken center stage in explorations of biblical texts. In Written to Be Heard: Recovering the Messages of the Gospels, Paul Borgman and Kelly James Clark seek to bring a renewed focus on the importance of learning “how to read what was meant to be heard—how to read as if hearing” (p. 3). Borgman is Professor Emeritus of English at Gordon College in Massachusetts, and Clark is Senior Research Fellow at the Kaufman Interfaith Institute at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Borgman and Clark suggest three guiding principles for their reading of the New Testament narrative texts, making it possible for the attentive reader to recover the texts’ “radical and relevant messages” (p. 10). They summarize these three principles in brief as “learning how to read as if hearing and how to hear each gospel as a whole and how to hear with a minimum of distorting biases” (p. 8). The authors develop the book’s argument through consecutive chapters treating Mark, Matthew, Luke, Acts, and the Gospel of John. One could read the book as a commentary of sorts, as Borgman and Clark work their way methodically from the beginning to the end of each book. This treatment is not necessarily verse-by-verse, but rather is attentive especially to significant structural and verbal patterns.
The strength of the book is its careful attention to the structure of each biblical book and the repeated words and phrases that undoubtedly serve a role in conveying meaning. The method of Borgman and Clark is primarily to summarize virtually the entire narrative of each book, with explanatory notes drawing attention to important features and themes. They use headings, bullet points, and outlines of chiasms and other structures to illustrate critical aspects of the telling of the stories that they argue would be apparent to hearers when read aloud, as these early biblical narratives were undoubtedly intended.
The result is a fairly comprehensive treatment of the Gospels and Acts that offers a unifying road map through them, especially for readers unfamiliar with perspectives scholars have advanced in recent years through rhetorical and literary approaches. The inescapable irony of the book, however, is that this passionate lesson in “hearing” the gospel message is presented entirely by means of written instructions. The book has no explicit directions for performing the text, or even encouragement to do so. In fact, it contains scarcely any reference to the burgeoning field of biblical performance criticism and its considerable resources that would shine light on Borgman’s and Clark’s approach.
References to “hearing cues” make up a significant portion of the book, but Borgman and Clark do little to demonstrate how their treatment of these cues as auditory phenomena differs from consideration of them as key words in a basic literary or rhetorical analysis. The criteria for “hearing cues” are unclear; their auditory distinctiveness is taken for granted but never demonstrated. The book makes almost no reference to the actual sound of the Greek words in the original texts. The volume’s general nature might explain why the authors would avoid a highly technical approach to discussing phonological matters (one thinks, e.g., of Bernard Brandon Scott and Margaret Ellen Lee’s groundbreaking work in Sound Mapping the New Testament), and yet why they have not at least introduced their readers to relevant insights in this area is puzzling.
This volume might best be utilized as a reference work for persons studying texts in the Gospels and Acts in preparation for sermon writing or Bible study. The organization of the book makes it easy to explore particular passages and their function within the larger biblical book of which they are a part. Some readers may experience a revelation in the treatment of each Gospel as a unique, self-contained telling of the story with a unified message. The weight of the extended summary and explanation in each chapter, however, would seem to commend itself more to use as a commentary. In many ways, it functions similarly to the numerous narrative treatments of the Gospels that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, or the Reading the New Testament commentary series, all the volumes of which are subtitled “A Literary and Theological Commentary.”
Many of the observations made by Borgman and Clark are insightful and thought-provoking. The material is generally within the range of views widely shared by critical scholarship, although the focus intended for a more popular audience results in minimal substantive conversation with other scholars. The layout of the book is attractive and easy to navigate, and it will serve as a practical guide to the Gospels and Acts, capable of offering fresh insights and perspectives on their distinctive messages.