‘Reception history’ combines the study of the effects of biblical materials on culture with the study of the uses to which people have put the Bible through the centuries.
Editors and authors connected with the Blackwell Bible Commentaries reflected on the practice of reception-historical study at the 2004 Society of Biblical Literature meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Manuscripts of their presentations are available for download:
- John F. A. Sawyer, ‘The Role of Reception Theory, Reader-Response Criticism and/or Impact History in the Study of the Bible: Definition and Evaluation’
- Mary Callaway, ‘What’s the Use of Reception History?’
- Chris Rowland, ‘A Pragmatic Approach to Wirkungsgeschichte: Reflections on the Blackwell Bible Commentary Series and on the Writing of Its Commentary on the Apocalypse’