The End of Biblical Studies [Hardcover]

Hector Avalos (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 2007

In this radical critique of his own academic specialty, biblical scholar Hector Avalos calls for an end to biblical studies as we know them. He outlines two main arguments for this surprising conclusion. First, academic biblical scholarship has clearly succeeded in showing that the ancient civilization that produced the Bible held beliefs about the origin, nature, and purpose of the world and humanity that are fundamentally opposed to the views of modern society. The Bible is thus largely irrelevant to the needs and concerns of contemporary human beings. Second, Avalos criticizes his colleagues for applying a variety of flawed and specious techniques aimed at maintaining the illusion that the Bible is still relevant in today’s world. In effect, he accuses his profession of being more concerned about its self-preservation than about giving an honest account of its own findings to the general public and faith communities.

Dividing his study into two parts, Avalos first examines the principal subdisciplines of biblical studies (textual criticism, archaeology, historical criticism, literary criticism, biblical theology, and translations) in order to show how these fields are still influenced by religiously motivated agendas despite claims to independence from religious premises. In the second part, he focuses on the infrastructure that supports academic biblical studies to maintain the value of the profession and the Bible. This infrastructure includes academia (public and private universities and colleges), churches, the media-publishing complex, and professional organizations such as the Society of Biblical Literature.

In a controversial conclusion, Avalos argues that our world is best served by leaving the Bible as a relic of an ancient civilization instead of the "living" document most religionist scholars believe it should be. He urges his colleagues to concentrate on educating the broader society to recognize the irrelevance and even violent effects of the Bible in modern life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A bracing call for Ingersoll-style biblical studies: a relentless demonstration of the alien and offensive character of a book that some would use as a weapon to control the rest of us."
ROBERT M. PRICE, PhD
Professor of Theology and Scriptural Studies
Johnnie Coleman Theological Seminary
Editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism
Author of The Reason-Driven Life and many other works


"... should be a required textbook in every academic class in biblical study .... I highly recommend this book to the general reader as a readable and reliable guide to understanding the important results of biblical research."

GERALD A. LARUE
Emeritus Professor of Biblical History and Archaeology
University of Southern California
First Chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Study of Religion
Author of numerous books on biblical issues including
Old Testament Life and Literature, Sex and the Bible, and
Ancient Myth and Modern Life

About the Author

Hector Avalos (Ames, IA) is associate professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, the author of four books on biblical studies and religion, the former editor of the Journal for the Critical Study of Religion, and executive director of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; 1St Edition edition (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591025362
• ISBN-13: 978-1591025368
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

199 of 217 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Biblical Studies? August 8, 2007

By Gene C. Bammel

Format:Hardcover

GNPR 70: Biblical Studies?
Marshall McLuhan, of "the medium is the message fame," used to say that his books did not sell well, because they contained more than the 25% of new material that most books did. For most people, "The End of Biblical Studies," a new book by Hector Avalos, Professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, will contain material that is at least 75% new to them, even though much of what Professor Avalos has to say has been well known within the Religious Studies community for many years.
What Avalos brings to this book is incredible scholarship, remarkable attention to detail, and, most of all, willingness to tell it like it is. A variety of scholars, among them Bart Ehrman, William Dever, John Dominic Crossan, have been busy popularizing what translators, literary critics, and biblical archeologists, have been saying for years. Much to the distress of fundamentalists, there is no single definitive text of the Bible, the Bible has no claims to distinctive literary merits, and the extensive archeological research of the last hundred years has done nothing but puncture holes in the hope of establishing any claims anyone might have that the Bible is in any way historically accurate. (Avalos has an excellent section pointing to the radical discrepancy between the Big Bang theory and the origins account of Genesis.)
Avalos, who has a Ph.D. from Harvard in Biblical Studies, points out that few people even in very religious America, really read the Bible, and even fewer have anything but a bowdlerized grasp of what is really there. His erudition in this regard is exceptional, taking apart the popular softenings of texts like Luke 14:25: "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother...cannot be my disciple...." Christian exegetes have soft-pedaled this, but the text really does say "hate," a verb that has no other possible translation. (One Christian exegete says: "this is indeed a hard saying.")
What does Professor Avalos hope to accomplish? As he says: "Our purpose is to excise from modern life what little of the Bible is being used and also to eliminate the potential use of any sacred scripture in the modern world." Jews and Christians are quick to find quotations in the Koran that relate to killing of the infidels, but are eager to pass over all those references to slaughter of the innocents that occur in various books of the Bible.
Avalos makes the case that the Bible was written by primitive people in a cultural context so foreign to our own that the Bible no longer makes sense. "What I seek is liberation from the very idea that any sacred text should be an authority for modern human existence." He refers constantly to the "bibliolatry" that has gotten us into so much trouble historically, and laments that the publishing industry and academia have such a vested interest in keeping such a form of idol worship alive.
"Abolishing human reliance on sacred texts is imperative when those sacred texts imperil the existence of human civilization as it is currently configured. The letter can kill. That is why the only mission of biblical studies should be to end biblical studies as we know it." This is an extremely well written book, but written at a sufficiently popular level that even someone not well versed in biblical studies can benefit from it. Even those who read the Bible continually will find at least 25% new material, and everyone who reads it will come away with 100% satisfaction. You may not agree with what Professor Avalos concludes, but his well-put together arguments deserve your thoughtful attention. Read more ›

56 of 61 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent critique of biblical studies May 16, 2008

By William Podmore

Format:Hardcover

Hector Avalos, associate professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, has written a brilliant and original critique of biblical studies from within. He argues that biblical studies should end, because it is just religious apologetics, not an academic discipline or a branch of scholarship.

Most biblical studies academics think the bible is worth keeping and studying and most are members of `faith communities'. But Avalos shows that the bible is irrelevant, the product of an ancient and very different culture whose values and beliefs about the origin, nature and purpose of the world are not useful or ethical. Religion is a fifth wheel, superfluous to life, a hindrance to all intellectual and scientific advances. It is an illegitimate claim to extra power for foolish arguments. We should not rely on any authority, especially not on a single ancient text.

He investigates biblical studies' various sub-disciplines. He shows that the translations of the bible are largely bowdlerised. Textual criticism has found no original texts or manuscripts, and Jesus spoke in Aramaic, not Hebrew or Greek, so there can be no original, pristine word of God.

Avalos shows how history and archaeology have disproved `biblical history'. He notes that centuries of Jesus studies have not found a historical Jesus: he has no verifiable words or deeds, and there are no contemporary eye-witness accounts. Literary criticism has not shown that the bible is better literature than other ancient works, and the excessive attention paid to this one text has meant that thousands of ancient Mesopotamian texts have never been translated....

Avalos examines the USA-based Society of Biblical Literature, with its 7,000 self-serving members, and shows how it has nothing useful or original to offer. Theology has found no coherent message about God; instead it is inconsistent and arbitrary, trying to rescue the bible through citing bits of texts. Nice people find the nice bits, nasty people find the nasty bits; both say that theirs are the essential bits.

It is often held against atheists like Richard Dawkins that they do not know theology, but they don't need to because others have done the work, like Walter Kaufmann in his Critique of religion and philosophy and now Avalos in this excellent book. Read more ›

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest and courageous assessment. January 7, 2008

By Steve Scott

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Hector Avalos pulls no punches in describing the current state of Biblical studies as a field of academia in decline. Tackling Biblical archaeology, textual criticism, and theology, Avalos dismantles them in detail, pointing out how they no longer bring anything new to our current understanding of the Bible or the spurious history associated with it. Indeed, he shows that most of what we know undermines the Bible as anything we can fully trust as a source for historical data.

Avalos, a former fundamentalist child evangelist, taught himself Hebrew and Greek in high school in order to better attack the arguments of atheists and non-Christian religions. He found he couldn't buttress or accept Christian apologetics, and ended up leaving the fold.

This is a book that could easily be expanded by fleshing out some of the ideas mentioned in his footnotes. Avalos points out that a great many of the works cited by apologists (Josephus, Suetonius, etc.) are from manuscript copies written in the middle ages, centuries after their authors died...authors who themselves didn't witness first hand the events they describe.

An outstanding book.

70 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Academic, but Fun! November 20, 2007

By Conrad Spoke

Format:Hardcover

"The End of Bible Studies" is the most fun I've ever had reading such an analytical book. I can honestly say that I was in a state of perpetual shock as I read page after page of devastating critique of such a huge and firmly anchored suite of disciplines. After all, what university in the Western World doesn't have a major workforce of teachers and researchers devoted to something-or-other relating to THE BIBLE?

According to Avalos, "Bible Study" is a thoroughly worn out field where nothing new has been discovered or analyzed for decades. Even worse, nothing new can be discovered, short of a major archeological find, which seems very unlikely. Even worse than this, academics are fully aware of the futility of further study. Avalos points this out by quoting extensively from academics who are fully devoted to their profession, but strangely honest about how difficult it is to find anything remotely new to say.

I already knew that the Jewish and Christian bibles were fiction. I had no idea that the profession was so wildly hypocritical. Man, this guy is not afraid to get rude!