This handbook provides a substantial theoretical and practical guide to the multi-faceted discipline of exegesis of the New Testament. It offers succinct and well-informed essays, with plenty of bibliography, written by experts in their respective fields. The handbook will serve well as a textbook, as well as a reference book to the major tools and topics in the area. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

With typical wit and jargon-free clarity: Stephen D. Moore guides us through the maze of concepts and projects that constitute the multidisciplinary phenomenon of post-structuralism. Moore centers on two lengthy exegetical examples - a Derridean reading of John and his interpreters and a Foucauldian reading of Paul and his. The book also deals with deconstruction's relationship to Theology and its relationship to biblical scholarship old and new - historical critical, narrative critical, and feminist. All who want to know what the fuss is about will owe Moore a debt of gratitude for this book.

The Blackwell Companion to the New Testament is a detailedintroduction to the New Testament, written by more than 40 scholarsfrom a variety of Christian denominations. Treats the 27 books and letters of the New Testamentsystematically, beginning with a review of current issues andconcluding with an annotated bibliography Considers the historical, social and cultural contexts in whichthe New Testament was produced, exploring relevant linguistic andtextual issues An international contributor list of over 40 scholars representwide field expertise and a variety of Christian denominations Distinctive features include a unified treatment of Lukethrough Acts, articles on the canonical Gospels, and a discussionof the apocryphal New Testament

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 Companion introduces the New Testament in its historical context, as well as critical approaches, for a non-specialist audience. It provides an up-to-date 'snapshot' of scholarship, with essays by leading scholars who presume no prior knowledge on the reader's part yet go into greater detail than a typical introductory textbook.

This volume presents a brief introduction to the scholarly methodology known as "poststructuralism." The first two chapters discuss basic concepts in poststructuralist study in general, as well as major concerns involved in poststructural study of any text. The focus is on the importance of the materiality of the signifier and how that materiality both plays a part in and disrupts the construction of meaning. The second two chapters show more specifically how these concepts and concerns come to bear on the study of biblical texts and related material. The focus is on a poststructural methodology that questions and challenges the meanings that readers assign to biblical texts. These four chapters are followed by a brief conclusion.

To deconstruct a text means to disassemble the various points of view contained within it, and to let them stand fully exposed with all their own presuppositions. When this is done, the contours of these building blocks appear so different from one another that the structural unity of the text is called into question. Biblical scholars will sense how close this process is to familiar methods of form and source criticism. Without jargon, this study sharpens and clarifies the analytical thrust behind such methods. At the same time, it offers a fresh rendering of redaction criticism, inquiring after the often contradictory motives and historical circumstances influencing the evangelists. This book thus provides an intriguing combination of the old and the new.

In this "tale of two disciplines," Stephen D. Moore and Yvonne Sherwood invite the reader into a paradox: just as the wider field of literary studies has now come to operate "after theory," biblical scholars continue their long search for an elusive Holy Grail?a definitive literary-critical theory. Understanding that paradox requires revisiting the peculiar history by which the curious figure of the biblical scholar was invented during the Enlightenment, and how contemporary biblical scholarship continues?however unwittingly?to pursue Enlightenment goals.

As readers, we are captivated by the resemblance of literary characters to actual persons. But it is precisely this illusion that allows characterization to play host to dominant ideologies of both 'literature' and 'the self'. This is especially true when we confuse narrative figures and historical persons. Over the last thirty years, New Testament narrative criticism has developed into a major methodological approach in Biblical Studies. But for all its ingenuity and promise, it has been reluctant to let go of conventional historical-critical moorings. As a result, one is hard pressed to find any substantive difference between reconstructions of the historical Jesus and narrative-critical readings of the character Jesus. Reconfiguring Mark's Jesus endeavors to reorient and advance narrative criticism by analysing the Gospel of Mark's characterization of the figure of Jesus in relation to three other fundamental aspects of narrative discourse: focalization, dialogue, and plot. This intertextual reading, in which Mark is set alongside two ancient novels-Leucippe and Clitophon and the Life of Aesop-problematizes implicitly modern notions of literary characters as autonomous 'agents', as well as 'naturalizing' treatments of literary characters as historical referents. Highlighting the inherent ambiguity of narrative discourse, particularly with regard to referentiality, human agency, and the complex relationship between literature and history, Reconfiguring Mark's Jesus illustrates the diverse and complex ways that narratives, of necessity, produce fragmented characters that refract the inherent paradoxes of narrative itself and of human subjectivity.

A comprehensive case for a fresh literary approach to the New Testament For at least a half century, scholars have been adopting literary approaches to the New Testament inspired by certain branches of literary criticism and theory. In this important and illuminating work, Michal Beth Dinkler uses contemporary literary theory to enhance our understanding and interpretation of the New Testament texts. Dinkler provides an integrated approach to the relation between literary theory and biblical interpretation, employing a wide range of practical theories and methods. This indispensable work engages foundational concepts and figures, the historical contexts of various theoretical approaches, and ongoing literary scholarship into the twenty-first century. In Literary Theory and the New Testament, Dinkler assesses previous literary treatments of the New Testament and calls for a new phase of nuanced thinking about New Testament texts as both ancient and literary.