What genre is The Calling?

Answer 1

A:There are at least two distinct gospel genres, but both are concerned with the life of Jesus. As we find in Paul's epistles, the term 'gospel' originally denoted apostolic preaching about Jesus, but later it came to refer to the literary works that we now know as gospels. Unfortunately most attempts to define a gospel genre end up excluding some gospels and therefore really only define a sub-genre of gospel.

Probably the earliest gospels to be written were the Gospel of Thomas and the hypothetical 'Q' Gospel (or 'Q' Document). These belong to the genre known as Sayings Gospels, as they contain sayings only, with no narrative detail. There are other sayings gospels from the second century and beyond. They are 'gospels' because they are exclusively about Jesus.

The four New Testament gospels were the first of another genre known as Narrative Gospels, because they contain both sayings and narrative about the life, mission and crucifixion of Jesus. There are other narrative gospels from the second century and beyond, the most important of which is arguably the Gospel of Peter. They are all 'gospels' because they are exclusively about Jesus.

Perhaps the one definition of a gospel genre that is inclusive of all gospels is that a gospel is an early Christian book from which the story of Jesus was preached.