The Fourth Gospel in First-Century Media Culture

Scholars of religion and the New Testament place the Gospel and letters of John into the context of first-century media culture, illustrating the interpretative potential of media criticism for understanding the literature. They cover John and oral culture, oral performance, the medium of memory, and reflections and directions. Among specific topics are the riddle of the Baptist and the genesis of the prologue in oral/aural media culture, audience address and audience identity, Abraham as a figure of memory in John 8.31-59, and what difference the medium makes. T&T Clark is an imprint of Continuum. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Anthony Le Donne (PhD, Durham University) is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism at Lincoln Christian University, Lincoln, Illinois. He is the author of The Historiographical Jesus: Memory, Typology, and the Son of David (Baylor University Press, 2009) and Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It? (Eerdmans, 2010). Together with Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton he is co-editing Soundings in Jesus and His Religion (Fortress, forthcoming in 2011). His home on the web is anthonyledonne.com. Tom Thatcher is Professor of Biblical Studies at Cincinnati Christian University. He has authored or edited numerous books and articles on the Johannine Literature and early Christian media culture, including Memory, Tradition, and Text (with Alan Kirk; SBL 2005), Why John Wrote a Gospel (WJK 2006), and Jesus, the Voice, and the Text (Baylor University Press 2008). A co-founder and former chair of the 'Mapping Memory' research group in the Society of Biblical Literature, Tom now serves on the programme committee of the SBL's Bible in Ancient and Modern Media section.