Publications

Major Publications

I have been interested in New Testament narratives and rhetorical studies from the very beginning of my academic career. Many of my publications focus on both "hypothetical" or "implied" readers of various stripes and real readers--the latter accounting for the autobiographical, postcolonial, and cinematic direction of my more recent work.

A number of my essays are available on this webpage in their pre-publication form. My hope is that readers might find here subjects or perspectives of interest and be led to the final, published versions of these pre-publication texts. These online texts should not be quoted or referenced in lieu of the copyrighted, published versions. Two of my recent, nonbiblical publications can be found on my "personal" page. These deal with Methodist women's work in nineteenth century San Francisco Chinatown.

	Jesus, the Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination: A Handbook to Jesus on DVD. Co-authored with Richard Walsh. Westminster John Knox, 2007. Reviewed by Matt Page in his Bible Films Blog, December 14, 2007; and by Phil Groom for UK Christian Bookshops Reviews. Summarizes eighteen Jesus films available on DVD, with brief descriptions of major characters, the directors and their other major films, and the films' genres and socio-political settings. A listing of DVD chapters and extras concludes each chapter. At the end of the book is a harmony of film parallels that lists by hour, minute, and second where each gospel scene can be found on the DVDs. The following additional tools may be helpful for those teaching courses on Jesus films or for those doing research on Jesus films: Study questions related to each film, glossary of terms, annotated bibliography, Scripture index, list of errata for the "Gospels Harmony of Jesus Films on DVD," list of internet links to Jesus movies and Jesus movie excerpts, list of humorous YouTube links that I call "Jesus Shorts."
	John and Postcolonialism: Travel, Space, and Power. Co-edited with Musa Dube. Continuum International, 2002. Reviewed in Anglican Theological Review 85:4, and by Fernando Segovia, "Johannine Studies and the Geopolitical: Reflections upon Absence and Irruption," pp. 281-306 in What We Have Heard From the Beginning: The Past, Present, and Future of Johannine Studies. Tom Thatcher, editor. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2007. Besides developing the original book proposal and editing the essays, my major contribution to this book is the article listed below as "Dis Place, Man." The book can be purchased in electronic format from Logos Bible Software by clicking on the title above.
	Taking it Personally: Autobiographical Biblical Criticism. Co-edited with Janice Capel Anderson. Semeia 72 (1995). This volume did not actually appear in print until 1997. For my two essays in the collection, see the category "Essays on Autobiography and the New Testament" (below). These essays are online in the ATLA database accessible through most university libraries.
	Reading with a Passion: Rhetoric, Autobiography, and the American West in the Gospel of John. Continuum, 1995. Released in paper, 2002. Reviewed in: Religious Studies Review 22:4; Review and Expositor 94; 59:2; Catholic Biblical Quarterly 59:2; Christianity and Literature 46:2; Literature and Theology 11:3; Toronto Journal of Theology 14:1; Journal of Biblical Literature 117:4. Click on the image to the right for the table of contents and the pre-publication chapters available online. You can also view most of the book's images and read excerpts from the book on Google Books. Although the word "postcolonialism" is not in the title of the book, there is a strong postcolonial element to the introduction and chapters 4-6. Feminist, masculinity, and Native American studies also undergird much of the exegesis. Chapter 6 uses Bakhtin's concept of "carnivalesque" and Elaine Scarry's The Body in Pain as dialogue partners over the Johannine passion narrative. John Dominic Crossan interacts extensively with my "Postmortem Passion Play" (Chapter 6) in his essay on Mark's Gospel entitled "The Power of the Dog," in Postmodern Interpretations of the Bible: A Reader. Edited by A. K. M. Adam (Chalice, 2001), pp. 187-194.
	The Print's First Kiss: A Rhetorical Investigation of the Implied Reader in the Fourth Gospel. SBLDS 82, Scholars Press, 1988. Reviewed in: Revue Biblique 97:4; Religious Studies Review 18:1; Australian Biblical Review 37; Catholic Biblical Quarterly 52:1; Critical Review of Books in Religion 2; Interpretation 44:2. This Graduate Theological Union dissertation was completed in 1985. The particularly innovative part of the work argues there is a "reader victimization" strategy at work throughout the Gospel that explains the text's glaring inconsistencies better than any theory of multi-layered editing or redaction. Reevaluates the symbolic language of the wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-11) and interprets the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-42) as a parody.

Essays on Film and the New Testament

"Resurrection Dysfunction, or One Hundred Years of Cinematic Attempts at Raising a Stiff (Jn 11:1-46)." In Anatomies of the Fourth Gospel. Resources in Biblical Studies. Edited by Stephen Moore and Tom Thatcher. Scholars Press, 2008.
Analyzes nine film versions of the Raising of Lazarus (1905-2003) comparing these to the scene in the Gospel of John, and showing how the filmed versions change the focus of the story. Seeks to place these changes within the context of American culture and the history of cinema itself.

"Reading ‘This Woman’ Back into John 7:1-8:59: Liar Liar and the ‘Pericope Adulterae’ in Intertextual Tango." In Those Outside: Noncanonical Readings of Canonical Gospels. Edited by George Aichele and Richard Walsh. Continuum, 2004.
Explores the connections between Jim Carrey in the film Liar Liar and the textually suspect story of the Woman Caught in Adultery (John 8:1-11).

“Meeting Patch Again for the First Time: Purity and Compassion in Marcus Borg, the Gospel of Mark, and Patch Adams.” In Screening Scripture: The Bible and Classic Film. Edited by George Aichele and Richard Walsh. Trinity Press International, 2002. Reviewed in Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 3 (2003).

Essays on Postcolonialism and the New Testament

“‘Clothed and in Her Right Mind’: Mark 5:1-20 and Postcolonial Discourse.” In Voices from the Margin: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World. Expanded and Revised Third Edition. Edited by R. S. Sugirtharajah. Marknoll, NY: Orbis, 2006.
Combines my interest in nineteenth century San Francisco Chinatown with biblical scholarship. This online version was updated in July 2008.

“Postcolonial Reflections on Reading Luke-Acts from Cabo San Lucas and Other Places.” In Literary Encounters with the Reign of God. Edited by Sharon Ringe and Paul Kim. Trinity Press International, 2004.
Is a postcolonial reading of Luke's gospel possible? It depends upon what you read alongside the gospel.

“‘Dis Place, Man’: A Postcolonial Critique of the Vine, the Mountain, and the Temple in the Gospel of John.” In John and Postcolonialism: Travel, Space, and Power. Co-edited with Musa W. Dube. Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.
Uses Michelle Cliff's novel No Telephone to Heaven as a starting point for a critical appraisal of place and space in the Fourth Gospel. Expores the metaphor of the rizhome as an autobiographical entrance into issues of diplacement in John 4 and 15.

“Changing Woman: A Postcolonial, Postfeminist Interpretation of Acts 16.6-40.” In A Feminist Companion to Acts. Edited by A.-J. Levine and Marianne Blickenstaff. Continuum, 2004.
This is a revised version of my “Changing Woman: Postcolonial Reflections on Acts 16.6-40.” JSNT 73 1999. The exegesis is influenced by Native American studies. Looks at Lydia and the slave girl of Acts 16 from the intertextual framework of Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony and Oliver La Farge's Pulitzer prize-winning novel, Laughing Boy. A shorter version of the essay appears as “Reading Acts 16:6-40 on the Edges of the Navajo Reservation” in Word and World (Summer 2004).

Essays on Autobiography and the New Testament

“What is Critical about Autobiographical Biblical Criticism?” In Autobiographical Biblical Criticism: Between Text and Self. Edited by Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger. Deo Publishing, 2002.

“Disseminations: An Autobiographical Midrash on Fatherhood in John’s Gospel.” Semeia 85 (1999).
Influenced strongly by gender studies, and Jacques Derrida.

“Autobiography.” In Handbook of Postmodern Biblical Interpretation. Edited by A. K. M. Adam. Chalice, 2000.

“Introduction.” In Taking It Personally: Autobiographical Biblical Criticism. Co-edited with Janice Capel Anderson. Semeia 72 (1995).

“Narrative Structure (Self Stricture) in Luke 4:14-9:62: The United States of Luke’s Story World.” Semeia 72 (1995).

Other Essays

“Choosing Between Twos: Apocalyptic Hermeneutics in Science Fiction, the Radical Right, and Recent Historical Jesus Scholarship.” In The Meanings We Choose: Hermeneutical Ethics and the Conflict of Interpretations. Edited by Charles Cosgrove. Trinity Press International, 2004.

“Manhood and New Testament Studies After September 11.” In New Testament Masculinities. Edited by Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen D. Moore. Semeia Studies, 2003.

“What Can a Postmodern Approach to the Fourth Gospel Add to Contemporary Debates About its Historical Situation?” In Jesus in Johannine Tradition. Edited by Robert Fortna and Thomas Thatcher. Westminster/John Knox, 2001.

“The Apostle John.” In Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Edited by David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck. Eerdmans, 2000.

“Subversive Narrator/Victimized Reader: A Reader Response Assessment of a Text-Critical Problem, Jn 18:12-24.” JSNT 51, 1993. (A greatly revised version of this essay became chapter three in my later book Reading with a Passion: Rhetoric, Autobiography and the American West in the Gospel of John [Continuum, 1995]).

“Stumbling in the Dark, Reaching for the Light: Reading Character in John 5 and 9.” Semeia 53, 1991. (A greatly revised version of this essay became chapter one in my later book Reading with a Passion: Rhetoric, Autobiography and the American West in the Gospel of John [Continuum, 1995]).

“The Structure of John’s Prologue: Its Implications for the Gospel’s Narrative Structure.” CBQ 48, 1986.

An Unfinished, Unpublished Introduction to the Gospel of John

Faith Journeys in John
      Originally intended to be a eight-chapter study guide for church folk studying the Gospel of John for the first time, this project may never
be finished. However, I have added the two completed chapters to this webpage, believing that they offer the beginning reader of John a
useful, easy-to-read introduction to the Fourth Gospel.

Journeys of Faith in the Gospel of John: A Guidebook for All Ages
       Includes a preface, a brief annotated bibliography, and Chapter One: A Rim with a View (John 1:1-18).

The Chiastic Structure of John 1:1-18
       Includes a brief definition of chiasms and a description of the concentric structure of Johannine narrative.

The Never Ending Story (John 21)

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