The Greatest Story Ever Retold

In this innovative book, two respected New Testament scholars explore the ways the Jesus story has been told and retold from the earliest Gospel writings to contemporary film adaptations. John Anthony Dunne and Jeannine Brown highlight what later narratives can teach us about the hermeneutical process we employ, knowingly or unknowingly, as we read the Gospels.

Dunne and Brown explain that we visualize the Jesus story in particular ways as we read the Gospels. We inevitably play the part of a director—casting the actors, blocking a scene, encouraging a particular line reading, and more—as we imagine the story playing out in a Jesus film of our own. The authors show that Jesus films can help us think through how and why we direct our own film in the way that we do when we read or hear the story of Jesus. The book incorporates many contemporary film adaptations to demonstrate how we become participants in the creation of such narratives.

The Greatest Story Ever Retold accounts for the ways humanity has been grappling with the Jesus story for two millennia, often casting it in a way that forms to our own questions and identities. It will be useful for students, scholars, and readers of Christianity and popular culture.

Author Biography

John Anthony Dunne (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is associate professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the author of The Mountains Shall Drip Sweet Wine: A Biblical Theology of Alcohol.

Jeannine K. Brown (PhD, Luther Seminary) is the David Price Professor of Biblical and Theological Foundations at Bethel Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is the author of numerous books, including Scripture as Communication, The Gospels as Stories, and Embedded Genres in the New Testament.