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The Postmodern Bible

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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.

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.