Stephen D. Moore

Stephen D. Moore and Yvonne Sherwood craft a wide-ranging account of the history of biblical scholarship and compelling reasons for a metacritical reflection on the discipline through an authentic engagement with poststructuralism. This is a text that's witty and erudite but not short and to the point. Moore and Sherwood ping-pong to a variety of issues in biblical scholarship, and their reliance on a comparison with literary studies really assumes too much of the reader's academic background to make this a helpful text for a layperson.… (mere)

You don't expect a book on biblical hermeneutics to make you laugh out loud, but this account by two of its exponents of how literary Theory ' was subsumed under the historical methodological imperative to its detriment when it was introduced into biblical studies is both very well argued and immensely witty. It is also pleasingly short!

The way they suggest to get out of this impasse is both refreshing and surprising , but as they don't 'show their hand 'until very late in the book I will not spoil the fun...… (mere)

This is in fact an integrated collection of eight essays by noted scholars. After an introductory essay, the following seven chapters introduce a variety of methodologies for biblical studies. Each essay begins with a general introduction to the presupositions and methodologies of their particular area of interest, and then goes on to apply this more specifically to the Gospel of Mark, usually by analysing a particular section.

I found all of the essays well written and engaging. Those on areas I am familiar with seemed balanced, accurate and clear, and those on areas with which I am less familiar (e.g deconstruction) were enlightening. The only essay I found slightly less helpful was the one on postcolonial criticism, mainly because the application section was disappointingly general and could have done with some illustration.

A very useful book for any introduction to the study of Mark's Gospel, or to biblical criticism in general.… (mere)