We Can Remember It For You Wholesale The Social Theory of Biblical Literature

Abstract

This article argues that modern biblical studies has, for the most part, drawn explicitly or implicitly on one single underlying social theory. This theory argues that literary form flows from social form. Originally based in 18th-century Western European theories of social evolution from primitive tribal societies that used oral poetry to advanced bureaucratic societies that used written prose, reflected in work ranging from Gunkel and Cassuto to Cross, scholars continued to promote the theory even after its social evolutionism was more or less disproven. In its current form it assumes that the form of Hebrew literature flows from a scribal culture that is both poetic and prosaic, oral and literate.  The article concludes by suggesting that the theory still holds some value if it is seen in terms of a more supple and historically specific relationship between form and content, and offers some proposals and examples for successful rethinking.