In this
study in three-dimensional character reconstruction, Cornelis Bennema presents
a new theory of character in the New Testament literature. Although character
has been the subject of focused literary-critical study of the New Testament
since the 1970s, Bennema observes that there is still no consensus regarding
how character should be understood in contemporary literary theory or in
biblical studies. Many New Testament scholars seem to presume that characters
in Greco-Roman literature are two-dimensional,”Aristotelian”; figures, unlike
the well-rounded, psychologized individuals who appear in modern fiction. They
continue nevertheless to apply contemporary literary theory to characters in
ancient writings. Bennema here offers a full, comprehensive, and
non-reductionist theory for the analysis, classification, and evaluation of characters
in the New Testament.