February 26, 2019

Episode 52: Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus, a conversation with Dr. Brian Wright

21 minutes

Pastor Brito sat down on this one-on-one interview with Dr. Brian Wright to talk about Wright’s fascinating book published in 2017 entitled Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus.

Much of the contemporary discussion of the Jesus tradition has focused on aspects of oral performance, story telling, and social memory, on the premise that the practice of communal reading of written texts was a phenomenon documented no earlier than the second century C.E. Brian J. Wright overturns that premise by examining evidence that demonstrates communal reading events in the first century.

We also discussed whether the assertion that the early church was vastly illiterate is a historically accurate description or whether historians have misunderstood the clear data.

The interview concludes focusing on how we can apply the practice of communal reading to our modern church context. While the book is a bit technical, Pastor Brito and Dr. Wright focus on the important applications to Bible Studies, liturgical readings, poetry readings, etc. This interview may encourage a renewed interest in reading and discussing the text, whether of Holy Scriptures or other significant writings together in community.

Resources:

Dr. Brian Wright’s academic papers can be found here.

Wright’s articles on the Gospel Coalition.

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By Kuyperian Commentary

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