A.K.M. Adam offers plain-language explanations and examples of the related critic assumptions that are now called 'postmodernism.' Included are deconstruction, ideological criticism, postmodern feminism, 'transgressive' postmodernism, and others.

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.

In The Bible after Babel John J. Collins considers the effect of the postmodern situation on biblical, primarily Old Testament, criticism over the last three decades. Collins examines the quest of historical criticism to objectively establish a text's basic meaning. Accepting that the Bible may no longer provide secure "foundations" for faith, Collins still highlights its ethical challenge to be concerned for "the other"--A challenge central both to Old Testament ethics and to the teaching of Jesus. --from publisher description.

Postmodern interpretation of the Bible represents one of the cutting edges in biblical studies, yet scholars have too often found these methods frustratingly dense and obtuse. This volume offers an accessible introduction to the methods of postmodern biblical interpretation. Each essay introduces a major concept or a key interpreter of postmodernism within the context of its connection to biblical interpretation, allowing scholars and students to begin understanding this exciting and provocative set of developments in biblical study.

This book explores the relationship between postmodernism and Christianity. Whereas deconstructionists claim all religious discourses can be radically undermined, Ingraffia argues that the version of Christianity constructed by Nietzsche, Heidegger and especially Derrida ignores Christianity's unique ontological status. This truth, Ingraffia claims, is an unacknowledged influence on leading postmodernist thinkers, thereby demonstrating the priority of the Judaeo-Christian tradition over secular attempts to displace it.

Exploring Postcolonial Biblical Criticism: History, Method, Practice offers a concise and multifaceted overview of the origins, development, and application of postcolonial criticism to biblical studies.? Offers a concise and accessible introduction to postcolonial biblical studies Provides a comprehensive overview of postcolonial studies by one of the field's most prominent figures Explains one of the most innovative and important developments in modern biblical studies Accessible enough to appeal to general readers interested in religion

Harry Emerson Fosdick's classic volume entitled 'The Modern Use of the Bible' enabled readers in the first part of this century to make the pilgrimage into the 'modern' era and to understand the Bible in an idiom informed by critical and historical assumptions and approaches. The exchange of the historical context for the dogmatic transformed biblical study into an exciting discipline both spiritually and intellectually. The critical distancing of the text in the historical approach, however, has gradually trnasformed biblical writings into museum pieces without contemporary relevance. For contemporary readers, a satisfying approach cannot be uncritical, but it must move beyond the critical. 'Postmodern Use of the Bible' encourages a continual pilgrimage. In this book, readers are provided resources to enable them to make sense for themselves, in the light of challenges to major critical assumptions and strategies of 'The Modern Use of the Bible.' The same goal is in mind--to allow the Bible to speak in a contemporary idiom. --from the Introduction Contents Introduction 1. How Have We Made Sense of the Bible? 2. Toward the Postmodern 3. Literary Perspectives and Resources for Postmodern Use: Structures, Codes, and the Readers 4. The Role of the Reader: Imaging the Sacred 5. The Role of the Reader: Actualizing of Biblical Discourse Conclusion