The Bible After Babel: Historical Criticism in a Postmodern AgeBiblical scholars today often sound as if they are caught in the aftermath of Babel -- a clamor of voices unable to reach common agreement. Yet is this confusion necessarily a bad thing? Many postmodern critics see the recent profusion of critical approaches as a welcome opportunity for the emergence of diverse new techniques. In The Bible after Babel noted biblical scholar John J. Collins considers the effect of the postmodern situation on biblical, primarily Old Testament, criticism over the last three decades. Engaging and even-handed, 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. |
Contents
Historical Criticism and Its Postmodern Critics | 1 |
The Crisis in Historiography | 27 |
Exodus and Liberation in Postcolonial Perspective | 53 |
The Impact of Feminist and Gender Studies | 75 |
Israelite Religion The Return of the Goddess | 99 |
Is a Postmodern Biblical Theology Possible? | 131 |
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| 193 | |
| 198 | |
Other editions - View all
The Bible after Babel: Historical Criticism in a Postmodern Age John J. Collins Limited preview - 2005 |
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Amos Ancient Israel archaeological argues Asherah Ashtart Baal Biblical Interpretation Biblical Narrative biblical scholars biblical scholarship biblical studies biblical text Biblical Theology Brueggemann Cambridge Canaan Canaanite century Christian claims Clines context critique Cult of Asherah cultural David Davies deconstruction deity Derrida Deuteronomistic Dever divine Early Israel Eerdmans Emmanuel Lévinas essay ethical evidence Exodus Exodus story Feminist Finkelstein Fortress Frank Moore Cross Frymer-Kensky gender Genesis goddess Gottwald Hadley Hebrew Bible Hermeneutics historical criticism Historiography History of Israel Hosea human ideology inscription Israel Finkelstein Israelite Israelite Religion Jacques Derrida Jewish JSOTSup Kuntillet Ajrud Lemche Levenson liberation theology Lohfink Louisville male Minneapolis modern Monotheism Myth Old Testament Old Testament Theology Oxford patriarchal perspective philosophical pithoi Politics Postcolonialism postmodern postmodernist problem Prophet Provan reading Rhetoric of Sexuality Rorty Schüssler Fiorenza Scripture Sheffield Academic Sherwood Thompson tion tradition Trible Ugaritic University Press Westminster John Knox woman women worship Yahweh York Zevit