The Postmodern Bible [Paperback]

Bible & Culture Collective (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 1997

The burgeoning use of modern literary theory and cultural criticism in recent biblical studies has led to stimulating-but often bewildering-new readings of the Bible. This book, argued from a perspective shaped by postmodernism, is at once an accessible guide to and an engagement with various methods, theories, and critical practices transforming biblical scholarship today. Written by a collective of cutting-edge scholars-with each page the work of multiple hands-The Postmodern Bible deliberately breaks with the individualist model of authorship that has traditionally dominated scholarship in the humanities and is itself an illustration of the postmodern transformation of biblical studies for which it argues. The book introduces, illustrates, and critiques seven prominent strategies of reading. Several of these interpretive strategies-rhetorical criticism, structuralism and narratology, reader-response criticism, and feminist criticism-have been instrumental in the transformation of biblical studies up to now. Many-feminist and womanist criticism, ideological criticism, poststructuralism, and psychoanalytic criticism-hold promise for the continued transformation of these studies in the future. Focusing on readings from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, this volume illuminates the current multidisciplinary debates emerging from postmodernism by exposing the still highly contested epistemological, political, and ethical positions in the field of biblical studies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 31, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300068182
• ISBN-13: 978-0300068184
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #703,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Postmodernism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must, October 14, 2001

By 

peculiar "andrew_eccentric" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Postmodern Bible (Paperback)

The Postmodern Bible provides what is as close as anyone will ever get to a contemporary handbook on "postmodern" methods of approaching, reading, using and interpreting the Bible. One might ask why such a book is needed. I would reply that this book is needed because it implicates the readers of the Bible in the matters it wishes to bring to bear in biblical study. This book attempts to show (in my estimation) that reading the Bible is a social act, a personal act, a political act and a cultural act. And this book preaches what it practices for it is written by a self-styled "Bible and Culture Collective", a group of scholarly "young turks" no less, who amply demonstrate that projects worked on together need not end up being mish-mashes of the wants and desires of those composing them.

This book has both direction and drive. In seven compact yet thorough discussions we are introduced, in theory and practice, to seven contemporary approaches to the practice of biblical reading. Many, if not all, of these (reader-response criticism, poststructuralism, feminist and womanist criticism) are hardly novel outside of the biblical field but then that seems the point of this book; that is, to attempt (or continue to attempt) to intergrate biblical studies ever more closely with, or into, literary studies and cultural studies. This seems the pervasive agenda of this book.

I must admit that I have an interest in reviewing this book, however. I was taught for three years as an undergraduate by one of the "Bible and Culture Collective", Stephen D. Moore. I can confirm that the Collective, if Moore be an example, do indeed practice what they preach in this book. I have to say it sets the Bible on fire in new and exciting ways. If you want to engage the Bible from some new angles or just want to get up date and clear in your mind on contemporary methods of biblical interpretation then get this book. It has no serious challengers in its field to date.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart and Unflinching, May 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Postmodern Bible (Paperback)

If you've ever been puzzled by the formula of 'post-modern' and 'biblical studies,' then you'd be wise to pick up this exhaustive and personable piece of academic fervor. Among others, The Postmodern Bible fuses epistemological, religious, and cultural frameworks into a textual craft that will keep you poised with more questions. I recommend this book to anyone who takes the Bible seriously - whether you're a theologian, academic, or a heady poser, you'll want to have this book on the shelves of your mind.