The Bible after Babel: historical criticism in a postmodern age (Google eBook)

John Joseph Collins

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005 - Religion - 201 pages

Biblical scholars today often sound as if they are caught in the aftermath of Babel — a clamor of voices unable to reach common agreement. But is this necessarily a bad thing? Many postmodern critics hear the confusion of critical languages as a welcome opportunity for diverse new approaches.

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 begins by examining the quest of historical criticism to objectively establish a text’s basic meaning. He goes on to deftly review the alternative methods of postmodern criticism, the disputed history of ancient Israel, and the ways in which postcolonial and feminist scholarship has called into question the moral authority of the Bible.

At the same time, as more diverse practitioners — including Jews, women, and ethnic minorities — have entered the field of biblical studies, many of the accepted conclusions of previous scholarship have crumbled. 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.

What people are saying

Review: The Bible After Babel: Historical Criticism in a Postmodern Age

User Review  - Yung-Suk Kim - Goodreads

John Collins writes clearly about intersections between historical criticism and postmodern approach without demonizing either. He questions biblical writers' ideological dimensions within a ...

Review: The Bible After Babel: Historical Criticism in a Postmodern Age

User Review  - B. Hawk - Goodreads

Collins starts out his work from the image of twenty-first-century, postmodern scholarship as a post-Babel world, in which many different voices add to the discourse of biblical studies. Throughout ...

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
• Bibliography: 162
• Index of Names: 193
• Index of Ancient Literature: 200

Popular passages

Page viii - SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series...‎

Page viii - JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature...‎

Page vii - HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs HSS Harvard Semitic Studies HTR Harvard Theological Review HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual...‎

Page viii - JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement Series JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament JSPSup Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha.‎

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Bible after Babel: historical criticism in a postmodern age
• Author: John Joseph Collins
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005
• ISBN: 0802828922, 9780802828927
• Length: 201 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Biblical Commentary / Old Testament; Religion / Biblical Criticism & Interpretation / Old Testament