Inspired by and engaging with the provocative and prolific work of Stephen D. Moore, Bible and Theory showcases some of the most current thinking emerging at the intersections of critical methods with biblical texts. The result is a plurality of readings that deconstruct customary disciplinary boundaries. These chapters, written by a wide range of biblical scholars, collectively argue by demonstration for the necessity and benefits of biblical criticism inflected with queer theory, literary criticism, postmodernism, cultural studies, and more. Bible and Theory: Essays in Biblical Interpretation in Honor of Stephen D. Moore invites the reader to rethink what constitutes the Bible and to reconsider what we are doing when we read and interpret it.

* Lucid, accessible introduction to new literary criticism of the Bible

Discusses theory and politics of reading, using a wide selection of examples

After almost two centuries of historical criticism, biblical scholarship has recently taken major shifts in direction, most notably towards literary study of the Bible. Much germinal criticism has taken as its primary focus narrative texts of the Hebrew Bible (the `Old Testament'). This study belongs in this movement and provides a lucid guide to its interpretative possibilities. It is both theoretical and practical, combining discussion of method and the business of reading in general with numerous illustrations through readings of particular texts. The opening chapter shows how literary criticism is related to other dominant ways of reading the text over the last two thousand years. In subsequent methodological chapters, the authors discuss characters, not excluding the narrator and God; plot, modifying recent theory to accommodate the peculiar complexity of biblical narratives; and the play of language through repetition, ambiguity, multivalence, metaphor and intertextuality. The concluding chapter explores the ideological dimension of narrative interpretation, with particular attention to Genesis 1-3, a story which has generated much discussion about gender and social hierarchy. Does this text define or challenge the status quo (of either the ancient or the modern world)? The authors lay out some of the debate and question what values are at work when we and others read and champion readings.

An extensive bibliography, arranged by subject and biblical text, completes the book.

In The Children of Israel, Danna Nolan Fewell explores how imaginative readings of selected scriptural texts might raise adult consciousness and responsibility toward children. Through stories, quotes, vignettes, and notes, Fewell provides different kinds of reading experiences, with different levels of coherence and disjunction, depending on how much the reader decides to delve into the critical apparatus or the framing dialogues. This work is designed to unsettle, to plant suggestions and questions, and to create space for reflection and conversation. It is an experiment to see if a postmodern reading of the Bible can provide a credible ethical vision that can inspire us to do a better job of caring for our children.

"The ways in which Fewell addresses the theme is inspiring. The text is imaginatively crafted and skillfully written." --Leslie J. Francis, from The Expository Times, volume 116, Number 8, May 2005

We are interested in subverting the notion of "type" when it comes to biblical characters. We prefer, instead, to see the characters in Ruth as complex people, not merely built around a single primary trait, like loyalty, altruism, or generosity.People may exhibit conflicting traits and are often different people. There is no reason why the same should not be true of literary characters. Accordingly we have tried not to define the "selves" of this narrative too tightly, and if we have over determined them, we recognize that as a fault. In short, the characters of this story have far more diverse possibilities of life in the minds of readers than we can ever give them. --from the Introduction

Intertextuality (the reading of one text in terms of another) is a diverse practice. It is a central and prevalent subject in poststructuralist literary theory. Reading between Texts is the first book to address intertextuality as it relates specifically to interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The contributors bring together lucid theoretical discussion and sophisticated interpretations from a variety of backgrounds, offering biblical scholars and students a helpful and thorough introduction to the issues and possibilities of intertextuality. The Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation series explores current trends within the discipline of biblical interpretation by dealing with the literary qualities of the Bible: the play of its language, the coherence of its final form, and the relationships between text and readers. Biblical interpreters are being challenged to take responsibility for the theological, social, and ethical implications of their readings. This series encourages original readings that breach the confines of traditional biblical criticism.

How do politics govern the plot and motivate the characters of the book of Daniel? By revealing a complex pattern of religious/political dynamics not found in other more superficial studies of Daniel, the author of this study provides an essential alternative to standard historical-critical interpretations of this key Old Testament book.

This book explores Genesis-Kings, the first great story in the Bible, stretching from creation through the promise to Abraham, the formation of Israel, the giving of the Law, the taking of the promised land, and the nation's eventual exile. Given the gender divide that Genesis-Kings constructs, the authors read this great story of promise wondering what it might look like to the excluded people--the aliens, the children, and particularly the women who are deemed to stand on the 'other' side of the divide,

The art of Samuel Bak depicts a world destroyed and yet provisionally pieced back together. Across nearly seven decades of artistic production Samuel Bak has explored and reworked a set of metaphors, a visual grammar and vocabulary, that ultimately privileges questions. Bak's pictorial readings invite reconsideration of the Post-Reformation privileging of word over image, and of the Post-Enlightenment privileging of reason over experience. Bak preserves memory of the twentieth century ruination of Jewish life and culture by way of an artistic passion and precision that stubbornly announces the creativity of the human spirit.