Let the Reader Understand: Reader-Response Criticism and the Gospel of Mark
"Let the Reader Understand is that rare book that both serves as an introduction to a method of scholarship and is also a landmark work in the field. Fowler provides an excellent, accessible introduction to anyone new to reader-response criticism of the Bible. His critical reading of the Gospel of Mark provides one of the most in comprehensive and insightful applications of reader-oriented criticism available to scholars to date."— Russell W. Dalton, United Theological Seminary (Russell W. Dalton, United Theological Seminary)"The paperback edition of this important book is long overdue. No other biblical scholar has been as closely identified with reader-response criticism as Robert Fowler, and Let the Reader Understand remains the most thoroughgoing and impressive application of this much-discussed methodology to a biblical text."— Stephen D. Moore, author of Literary Criticism and the Gospels (Stephen D. Moore)"Robert Fowler proposes a novel idea: What if we were to read books of the Bible the way we read other books? He reviews the Gospel of Mark the way one might approach a modern short story, noting how it affects its readers and asking why it sometimes affects different readers differently. A breakthrough in biblical scholarship, Let the Reader Understand has pragmatic worth for all who appreciate the Gospels as something other than historical artifacts. His approach brings the Gospel of Mark into the present, allowing it to speak in potentially unique ways to everyone who reads it. A modern 'classic' of biblical criticism, this volume is essential reading for all who are serious about studying the Gospels in ways that respect their character as literary narratives."—Mark Allan Powell (Mark Allan Powell)"Let the Reader Understand is that rare book that both serves as an introduction to a method of scholarship and is also a landmark work in the field. Fowler provides an excellent, accessible introduction to anyone new to reader-response criticism of the Bible. His critical reading of the Gospel of Mark provides one of the most in comprehensive and insightful applications of reader-oriented criticism available to scholars to date."— Russell W. Dalton, United Theological Seminary (Sanford Lakoff)"The paperback edition of this important book is long overdue. No other biblical scholar has been as closely identified with reader-response criticism as Robert Fowler, and Let the Reader Understand remains the most thoroughgoing and impressive application of this much-discussed methodology to a biblical text."— Stephen D. Moore, author of Literary Criticism and the Gospels (Sanford Lakoff)"Robert Fowler proposes a novel idea: What if we were to read books of the Bible the way we read other books? He reviews the Gospel of Mark the way one might approach a modern short story, noting how it affects its readers and asking why it sometimes affects different readers differently. A breakthrough in biblical scholarship, Let the Reader Understand has pragmatic worth for all who appreciate the Gospels as something other than historical artifacts. His approach brings the Gospel of Mark into the present, allowing it to speak in potentially unique ways to everyone who reads it. A modern 'classic' of biblical criticism, this volume is essential reading for all who are serious about studying the Gospels in ways that respect their character as literary narratives."—Mark Allan Powell (Sanford Lakoff)