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Ethics of Biblical Interpretation: A Reevaluation

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Patte's central claim is that male European-American exegetes have sinned (!) by taking their own perspectives, questions, methods, and interpretations as neutral, objective, disinterested, normative, universal, and exclusive. That is to say, white male exegetes have acted as if the only things that matter about biblical texts at all are the things about biblical texts that matter to European-American male exegetes. Patte argues that such construals are sinful because they demand that feminists, African-Americans, third-world residents, Jews, and many others "act as if" they are European-American males in order for their biblical interpretations to gain standing. Patte does not ask European-American males to give up their interests; he only asks that these exegetes recognize their interests as their own unique interests, and not as the only interests relevant to biblical interpretation. Patte argues for a similar reconception of the relationship between "critical" readers and "ordinary" readers of the Bible. This is a powerful and compelling work, if a bit repetitive at times -- an intriguing beginning to what is sure to be an ongoing conversation among professional biblical interpreters.