PhD Defense drs. M.J. Sinninghe Damsté

This study identifies the questions that occur in Luke 1:5–2:52, and then discusses their function in the communication between the text-internal author and the text-internal reader. It does so by applying the Communication-Oriented Method for the first time to this text-unit. It concludes that these questions function at the level of the characters as a communication ‘motor’, with the objective of prolonging the communication between the characters. At the level of the text-internal author and the text-internal reader, they function as a narrative ‘motor’, driving the text-internal author’s narrative by setting further action (and communication) in motion. 

Maurits J. Sinninghe Damsté studied theology at the Katholieke Theologische Universiteit (Catholic Theological University) in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.

• Location: Cobbenhagen building, Aula
• Supervisors: Prof. B.J. Koet, Prof. A.L.H.M. van Wieringen