DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS NEW TESTAMENT HERMENEUTIC: A RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE APPRAISAL

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Although I have subtitled this paper “A Retrospective and Prospective Appraisal,” the observant reader might realize that this is but a pedantic way of asking “What is discourse analysis, and what can it do for you?” As is the case with any methodology that claims to be a NT hermeneutic, scholars and students are most of all interested in what it is—that is, its purpose and central tenets—and what it can do for them in their analysis of the NT texts. I have therefore set forth a daunting if not impossible task for myself in this essay, since discourse analysis (as even its proponents will claim) is not easily de ned, being comprehensive in scope as far as hermeneutical systems go. Furthermore linguists, and especially NT linguists, are known for obscure methodologies, often inventing fanciful words referring to only slightly modi ed, already-existing concepts. Nevertheless similar excuses are readily thrown around in scholarly circles often as absolution for not at least attempting to

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