ORIGINAL RESEARCH

 

Constructing Protestant and Catholic Peters: A comparative study in the literary use of the New Testament and ecclesiastical tradition

 

 

F Hale

University of Stellenbosch

 

 

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ABSTRACT

Just as literary authors have long taken liberties with the biblical accounts of Jesus Christ and shaped Him to fit their own agendas, they have also appropriated considerable artistic licence in enhancing the meagre information about Peter in the New Testament when constructing fictional narratives about him. A comparison of The Big Fisherman by the theologically liberal American Congregationalist Lloyd C Douglas and Simon Peter the Fisherman by the Austrian Catholic Kurt Frieberger illustrates how two accomplished novelists, drawing in part on similar sources, created markedly different and to some extent predictable images of this apostle. Neither novel is fully faithful to the New Testament evidence; both evince the influence of extrabiblical sources.

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Consulted literature

Berglar, P 1991. Petrus. Vom Fischer zum Stellvertreter. München: Langen Müller.         [ Links ]

Bode, C 1950. Lloyd Douglas: Loud Voice in the Wilderness. American Quarterly 2(4), 340-352.         [ Links ]

Brown, R E, et al (eds) 1973. Peter in the New Testament: A Collaborative Assessment by Protestant and Roman Catholic Scholars. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, and New York: Paulist Press.         [ Links ]

Cullmann, O 1962. Peter. Disciple • Apostle • Martyr. A Historical and Theological Study. Revised edition. London: SCM Press Ltd.         [ Links ]

Dawson, V D, & Wilson B D 1953. The Shape of Sunday: An Intimate Life of Lloyd C. Douglas. London: Hodder and Stoughton.         [ Links ]

Douglas, L C 1927. Those Disturbing Miracles. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.         [ Links ]

-, 1942. The Robe. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.         [ Links ]

-, 1948. The Big Fisherman. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.         [ Links ]

-, 1951. Time to Remember. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.         [ Links ]

Dschulnigg P 1996. Petrus im Neuen Testament. Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk.         [ Links ]

Ehlert A D 1960. The Biblical Novel. A Checklist with an Introductory Essay. Anaheim: BCH Publications.         [ Links ]

Frieberger, K 1953. Der Fischer Simon Petrus. Wien: Zsolnay.         [ Links ]

-, 1955. Simon Peter the Fisherman. London: William Heinemann Ltd.         [ Links ]

Hale, F 2007. Evolving Attitudes towards Thaumaturgy in the Works of Lloyd C Douglas. Religion & Theology 14, 310-329.         [ Links ]

Perkins, P 2000. Peter: Apostle for the Whole Church. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.         [ Links ]

Thiede, C P 1986. Simon Peter. From Galilee to Rome. Exeter: The Paternoster Press.         [ Links ]

Wiarda, T 2000. Peter in the Gospels. Pattern, Personality and Relationship. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr.         [ Links ]

Ziolkowsky, T 1972. Fictional Transfigurations of Jesus. Princeton: Princeton University Press.         [ Links ]