Dean of Faculty and Professor of Literature and Creative Writing Suzanne Keen published a response essay in a special issue of Biblical Interpretation.
The special issue features a cognitive-narratological approach to characters and characterization in New Testament narratives. In her response essay, which culminates with an application of her theory of narrative empathy to the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Keen comments on the ideas of New Testament scholars Cornelis Bennema, Jan Ruggemeier, and Elizabeth E. Shively.
She offers comments on fictional and nonfictional contexts for character construction, on characters and characterization, and on the way diverse actual readers engage with characters. The essay concludes with a discussion of narrative empathy, as aspects of emotional reading.
