The story as a story Challenges of a narrative reading of Biblical historiography

In the field of historiography, the last quarter of the 20th century has been marked by an emphasis on the narrative dimension. The narrative genre offers decisive assets for the writing of history, especially in terms of causal explanation. The principal poetic choices shaping the narrative - construction of the narrative voice, temporality, characterization of the protagonists, etc. - are directly related to the type of causality that the historiographical narrative intends to highlight. The present article examines the relationship between some major features of the poetics of biblical historiography and the type of causality it promotes. The purpose is to show how attention to forms of narration is a privileged way to apprehend the type of history that the narrative promotes and, particularly for the Bible, the anthropology and theology it entails. © 2019 Universite Catholique de Louvain. All rights reserved.