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I just finished reading Andrew Judd’s new book, Modern Genre Theory: An Introduction for Biblical Studies. Judd’s goal was to introduce advanced �һ���Ƶ students and biblical scholars (who are not genre specialists) to recent discussions about genre. Everyone who knows anything about studying the Bible knows that properly identifying what kind of literature you’re reading (that is, its genre) is crucial for understanding a biblical text. One might say that if you were to read a proverb like a prophecy, you might find yourself perplexed by a plethora of presenting problems.

But Judd contends that most serious students of the Bible—including many biblical scholars — haven’t kept up to date on discussions among literary theorists who study non-biblical literature. That’s why he wrote Modern Genre Theory: to summarize what non-biblical scholars have recently been saying about genre.

Judd, in my opinion, has succeeded in reaching his goal and produced a helpful and workable description for those willing to put in the mental energy to digest it. But here’s the irony. Unless your diet includes regular academic intake, you’ll find this book a little tough to ingest. That observation itself is ironic, since Judd really has simplified things. Most of the literary theorists he cites use language so thick with academic jargon that reading a foreign language might feel easier. Judd’s register is way more accessible than the books and articles he cites; nevertheless, thinking about this topic will still require you to burn a few brain cells if you want to grasp the concepts he presents. Judd heightens the accessible-arcane irony by lacing his prose with some of the funniest humor I’ve ever read (humor of the nerdy academic type—he even includes his grandmother’s scone recipe on page 72!). But if you decide to read this book, be forewarned that it will require some mental commitment.

But all of us need to know enough about genre to avoid making (sometimes serious) mistakes when interpreting the Bible. So, I’m going to (try to) do what Judd did in translating seemingly inscrutable insights from linguists, rhetoricians, and literary experts into somewhat understandable language for advanced �һ���Ƶ students and non-genre-specialist biblical scholars. I’m going to try to summarize in regular non-technical language what I think are six of the most helpful things Judd himself summarized — and keep it super short. Please note that there are lots of other helpful ideas presented in this book; these six are just those that I think will be most helpful for normal but serious Bible readers.

1. Genre matters. You can really misread texts unless you think about genre.

2. Stop categorizing genres into rigid classes. Pay attention to the ways texts combine characteristics of various genres. (A narrative might exhibit poetic influences; a parable could communicate a prophecy.)

3. Pay attention to simpler genres (like prayers or greetings) embedded in more complex genres (like gospels or apocalypses).

4. Compare and contrast your text with prototypical texts, that is, texts everyone goes to when they think of certain genres. Use prototypes to think about similarities to and differences from whatever text you’re interpreting.

5. Think about how genres typically function in social settings — what they customarily do. Do they warn? Do they explain how God’s people got into the mess they’re in? Strengthen friendship? Illustrate truths about the person of Jesus?

6. Try out a genre on whatever text you’re reading. How well does your proposed genre work with the details of the text and its likely social setting? If it doesn’t work — or only slightly works — try out a different genre to see if it fares any better.

I appreciated this book, and despite wanting to quibble on some specifics in the case studies (something Judd anticipates his readers might do), I found it helpful. I am, however, slightly concerned that the author hasn’t constructed adequate guardrails to keep readers from sliding into unwarranted readings of texts. In fact, it feels (at least to me) that he slightly enjoys doing what he labels “tactical” readings. Granted, he does push back (a bit…at times) against imposed interpretations. But at other times, it felt like he was allowing too much space for a creative reader to throw any genre in the direction of a text to see what might stick. My concern is not so much with his method (since hypothesizing about proper genre is both necessary and unavoidable) as it is a concern about the posture readers should take when studying a biblical text. I think that my responsibility as the reader is to submit myself to what’s there, taking pains not to insert personal agendas (to whatever degree possible). Don’t misunderstand, Judd doesn’t seem to recommend hostile takeovers of biblical texts, and, as I already commented, occasionally includes short statements that would seem to move away from such (e.g., 97). But I would have appreciated clearer guidance on the ethics of what he labels “tactical” readings.

Hopefully waving a yellow flag at the end of this review won’t discourage serious students of the Bible from thinking carefully about genre theory and how it applies to biblical studies. Andrew Judd is to be commended for helping us do just that.

This and other resources are available at .