Will Discourse Analysis Help Me Understand the Unity of Luke-Acts?

I am struggling to understand how the discourse analysis tools could benefit my study of scripture. I have read the blogs and previous forum threads, but I am still uncertain how I would apply these resources. Thus the question in the title.

I guess I am trying to ask two questions:

a. how does discourse analysis apply to narrative (and poetry)?

b. does discourse analysis function intertextually? will it be of any benefit in a study of how Jesus cited old testament scripture?

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thank you.

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Rich DeRuiter

I am struggling to understand how the discourse analysis tools could benefit my study of scripture. I have read the blogs and previous forum threads, but I am still uncertain how I would apply these resources. Thus the question in the title.

I guess I am trying to ask two questions:

a. how does discourse analysis apply to narrative (and poetry)?

b. does discourse analysis function intertextually? will it be of any benefit in a study of how Jesus cited old testament scripture?

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thank you.

I really don't know if I can answer your questions authoritatively. I'm quite sure that D.A. applies to narrative and poetry quite well, and that it shows something about how citing (or recalling) OT Scripture functions in the course of the narrative itself. Maybe someone else can answer your questions, though I suspect it would take a course in linguistics to fully answer either question.

MJ Smith put together a series of articles on D.A. that I found both helpful in understanding D.A., and a bit discouraging about my ability to use it. That reading list should show up among your reading lists, but you'll have to look for it.

You can read my full reaction to reading a few of those articles here: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/37973/326894.aspx#326894

If you look at the rest of the thread I just mentioned, you'll see some of my frustration about trying to understand how D.A. is helpful and how to use the tools in Logos. My conclusion is basically this: the D.A. tools in Logos help someone with some training in D.A., and for checking the conclusions of someone else who is making claims based on D.A., but for those not trained to use the tools, it's not going to be much help.

Steve Runge has two Logos resources that would be a beginning for using the D.A. tools in Logos: his Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament and his Video Series on using Discourse Grammar. My assumption is that those two resources would provide one with the ability to make a beginning at doing D.A.

So far, I've not been very tempted to spend the money on those resources. D.A. is an emerging science (at least as applied to Scripture), so there's a part of me that wants to 'wait and see.' A second reason I'm holding back is that I'm not convinced that the final product is any better than what is gained by good, honest exegesis using a responsible hermeneutic, or if it is better, that the improvement is so slight as to not be worth the effort to learn it. But I'm still taking a 'wait and see' attitude about it.

Dennis Parish

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/332915#Comment_332915

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

Kenneth Neighoff

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/332937#Comment_332937

Trying to understand DA is a long haul.

Varner in his commentary on James, uses DA as a way to help you understand not only words, but clauses and paragraphs and how they all fit together. If you have the book read the introduction, that explains the approach if not it is available on Logos, here http://www.logos.com/product/16439/the-book-of-james-a-new-perspective

Clifford Kvidahl

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/332937#Comment_332937

Dennis,

Shoot me an email [catfishjim32 at gmail dot com]. I may have some articles on DA I can send you.

Cliff