De-Introducing the New Testament: Texts, Worlds, Methods, Stories

ISBN-13: 9781405187688 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 256 str.

Todd Penner

Opis

In De-Introducing the New Testament, the authors argue for a renewed commitment to the defamiliarizing power of New Testament studies and a reclaiming of the discipline as one that exemplifies the best practices of the humanities.

• A new approach that asks us to 'defamiliarize' what we think we know about the New Testament, articulating themes and questions about its study that encourage further reflection and engagement
• Looks behind the traditional ways in which the NT is -introduced- to critically engage the conceptual framework of the field as a whole
• Provides a critical intervention into several methodological impasses in contemporary NT scholarship
• Offers an appraisal of the relationship between economics and culture in the production of NT scholarship
• Written in a style that is clear and concise, ideal for student readership

Recenzje

Lopez, associate professor of religious studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg FL, suggest that part of the radical potential of de–introducing the NT lies in the refusal to give up on history, and historical criticism, while continuing to think through methodological questions and issues in the discipline (New Testament Abstracts 2016)

Spis treści

Acknowledgments ix

(De–)Introduction 1

Seeing Old Stones Anew 1

Introducing the New Testament as Introducing Traditional

New Testament Scholarship 4

Introducing Criticisms of Traditional New Testament Scholarship 9

Introducing De–Introducing the New Testament 17

1 The Order of New Testament Things: Questioning Methods and Meanings 25

The Bone–Box of James, the Brother of Jesus 25

Ways of Knowing a Subject of Study 31

Ordering Principles in the Study of the New Testament 35

Ways of Knowing New Testament Things 62

2 Foregrounding New Testament Backgrounds: Contextualizing Interpretation 71

Jew or Judean ? The Present Confronts the Past 71

Introducing the New Testament: Making Meaning with the Context 76

Backgrounding the Backgrounds Approach 83

Backgrounding the Character of Early Christianity: Liberty against Tyranny 97

Contexts Matter, Ancient and Modern 110

3 Objects, Objectives, and Objectivities: Material and Visual Culture and New Testament Studies 119

Of Fragments and Forgeries 119

Archaeology and the Making of Objects 122

Excavating Discourses that Produce Ancient Objects 133

What Do We Do with Ancient Objects? 145

What Do We Want with Ancient Objects? 160

4 Brand(ish)ing Biblical Scholars(hip): New Testament Studies and Neoliberal Subjectivity 169

Who Can Be a New Testament Scholar? 169

Neoliberalism and the Politics of Identity 173

Branding as a Practice of Neoliberal Subjectivity 183

Branding New Testament Scholars(hip) 191

The One–Dimensional New Testament Scholar? 205

Back to the Future: Concluding Observations on History, Method, and Theory in New Testament Studies 215

Index 000

O autorze

Davina C. Lopez is the author of Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul′s Mission (2008).

Todd Penner is the author of Contextualizing Gender in Early Christian Discourse (with Caroline Vander Stichele, 2009) and In Praise of Christian Origins: Stephen and the Hellenists in Lukan Apologetic Historiography (2004).

Both Lopez and Penner conducted research for this book as scholars–in–residence at the Burke Library of Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University between 2010 and 2011. In addition, they are both Senior Editors for the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies (2014) and have co–authored numerous essays together related to method and its consequence for interpretation in the study of the New Testament.

Blurb

De–Introducing the New Testament offers an exciting and provocative look at how we conduct critical New Testament scholarship in our present historical moment and socio–economic landscape. Challenging some of the methodologies and trajectories central to the area, the authors use the term de–introducing to denote a practice of unmasking the most basic categories and frameworks in the field so that we might better understand and appraise what discourses are at work therein. The authors acknowledge the interplay of ancient texts and modern disciplinary formation as important sites for the expression of identity and power relationships, and raise questions about the connections we seek to cultivate with the past.

Engaging with several dominant rhetorical paths in the field, the authors raise critical questions about the stories we tell in the field of New Testament studies: about who we are as New Testament scholars, what it is we think we do in the discipline, on what terms, and to what ends. Ultimately, the authors argue for a renewed commitment to the defamiliarizing power of New Testament studies and a reclaiming of the discipline as one that exemplifies the best practices of the humanities and the radical potential of liberative ethics.