A range of powerful contemporary engagements with the Bible by literary critics, philosophers, writers and activists is brought together for the first time in this Reader.

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.

This book draws on a variety of disciplines to undertake a unique analysis of Leviticus 1-7. Rather than studying the rituals prescribed in Leviticus as arcane historical/theological texts of little interest to the modern reader, or as examples of primitive rituals that have no parallel in Western society, this book provides many points of contact between animal sacrifice rituals and various parts of post-modern society. Modern rituals such as Monday Night Football, eating fast food, sending sons and daughters off to war, and even the rituals of modern academia are contrasted with the text of Leviticus. In addition, responses to Leviticus among modern African Christians and in the early church are used to draw out further understandings of how the language and practice of sacrifice still shapes the lives of people. This study takes a consciously Christian perspective on Leviticus. Leviticus is assumed to be an ongoing part of the Christian Bible. The usual Christian response to Leviticus is to ignore it or to claim that all sacrifice has now been superseded by the sacrifice of Jesus. This study refutes those simplistic assertions, and attempts to reassert the place of Leviticus as a source for Christian self-understanding. This is volume 417 of JSOTS and volume 9 of Playing the Texts.

Written by a brilliant young author, this book develops an evangelical theological hermeneutic that sees meaning in the text of Scripture.

A K. M. Adam has become one of the leading voices in postmodern criticism. This volume brings together his original essays introducing postmodern interpretation and arguing its urgent importance for the life of the contemporary church. Includes a bibliography and name and Scripture indexes.

We live in an age in which economic, ecological, and political crises are not the exception, but the rule. The Cold War polarities that shaped an earlier "political exegesis" have been replaced; Bruce Worthington argues that increasingly, crisis is the engine of a global "turbo-capitalism." In this volume, edited by Worthington, biblical scholars and activists describe and exemplify the shape of a biblical interpretation that takes contemporary crisis seriously as its most important context. Succinct opening essays summarize the salient aspects of our critical situation, especially in relation to the dominance of capitalism and its pervasive values; in later parts, contributions address themes of economic, political, and environmental crisis in dialogue with texts from the First and Second Testaments. Throughout the volume, the authors are careful to describe the basis for making interpretive analogies across historical, cultural, and socioeconomic distances between the world of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and our own. Richard A. Horsley writes a postscript pointing to next steps in political interpretation.

According to the opinio communis of the exegetes, the sin of Moses is one of the most difficult conundrums to resolve in the history of interpretation. This Pentateuchal puzzle has not only perplexed ancient and modern exegetes but has also produced a multiplicity of answers. A plethora of explanations proposed by exegetes on the sin of Moses appears to be strong on conjectural ingenuity but weak on textual evidence. A fresh exegetical probe is therefore warranted using a hermeneutical strategy whereby a narrative approach is attempted in order to understand Num. 20:1-13 in the light of Exodus 17:1-7. These narrative analogies are part of a distinctive feature in the Hebrew narrative style labelled Type- scene. The main thrust of this book is that the sin of Moses recorded in Numbers 20:1-13 is linked to the unlawful and wilful act of trifling with the sacred staff in striking the rock. This is because the staff of Moses has already become the staff of God (Exod. 4:20;17;9). Moses' abuse and misuse of the staff constitutes an act of lese-majeste because it is seen as an act of rebellion against YHWH's authority. Inevitably, Moses eclipses YHWH's personality, presence and power in the eyes of the people. His condign punishment is the forfeiture of the privilege of leading the people into the Promised Land.