Narrative Critics and Luke's Gospel

   
"For narrative critics, then, questions concerning whether Luke’s Gospel was written by a companion of Paul or whether the Evangelist drew some of his material from the Gospel of Mark or from a now lost Q document are irrelevant. These questions are significant for historical critics who wish to make judgments concerning the historical reliability of Luke’s work or who want to determine the theological agenda of the Gospel’s redactor. But they are not significant for appreciating and understanding Luke’s Gospel as a completed work of literature that must, in any case, be interpreted from the perspective of its implied author."

Mark Allan Powell, "Narrative Criticism," in Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation, 2nd ed., ed. Joel B. Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 242.