Let the Reader Understand: Reader-Response Criticism and the Gospel of Mark

First published in hardcover in 1991, Robert Fowler’s Let the Reader Understand was ahead of its time. Using reader-response criticism, a pioneering method for reading the Gospel of Mark, he invited contemporary readers to participate actively in making the meaning of the Gospel. Ten years later, the importance of this methodology is clear to all. In Let the Reader Understand Fowler provides clues to the rhetorical strategies used in Mark, and asks the reader to be attentive to the ways in which the narrative weaves its spell. He also demonstrates how the narrative provides both direction and indirection for the reader through its use of irony and paradox. Rather than providing a complete exposition of Mark, Fowler’s book offers hints and suggestions about how readers can read Mark and fashion contemporary meaning for themselves. Robert M. Fowler is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Religion Department at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. He is the author of Loaves and Fishes: The Function of the Feeding Stories in the Gospel of Mark and is a contributor to The Postmodern Bible. For: Seminarians; graduate students; undergraduates; general audiences; pastors>