The Bible after Babel: Historical Criticism in a Postmodern Age.

• Author: Holm, Tawny L.
• Position: Book review

The Bible after Babel: Historical Criticism in a Postmodern Age. By JOHN J. COLLINS. Grand Rapids, Michigan: WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING Co., 2005. Pp. x + 201. $18 (paper).

The six chapters of this book were originally delivered as lectures at the School of Divinity of the University of Edinburgh in 2004. The topic for the talks was "The Bible at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century," and thus, each lecture/chapter is meant to be "representative of the major trends in scholarship of this period" (p. vii). The book especially examines the effect that postmodernism has had on historical criticism, thus accounting for the title. Since the author is a widely respected and well-published scholar in biblical studies and related fields such as Hellenistic Judaism, his views on changing approaches to criticism are most welcome.

Chapter one, "Historical Criticism and Its Postmodern Critics," concentrates on defining both approaches. Here Collins outlines the principles of traditional historical criticism: the autonomy of the historian (independence from ecclesiastical or other authorities); the principle of analogy (recognition that the Bible is a text produced in the ways that other human texts are produced); and the principle of criticism (the idea that interpretations are subject to change when faced with convincing new evidence or arguments). The author contends that while biblical studies has not been monolithic in the past, a major factor in recent approaches is the changing demographics of the field, especially the influx of women and ethnic minorities, as well as more scholars from outside Protestantism. For their part, postmodern critics are even more interested in pluralism and competing voices, but with less emphasis on reconciliation of interpretations or consensus. (One should note that occasionally the author uses the terms "modern" and "postmodern," when "structuralist" or "post-structuralist" are preferable; one can hardly escape being postmodern as it is an epochal condition, while structuralism and post-structuralism constitute intellectual trends.)

Collins includes a broad list of approaches under the postmodern umbrella--suspicion or rejection of universal truths, objectivity, unambiguous meanings, grand historical narratives, etc. As examples of recent biblical criticism, the author looks at the deconstructionist reading of Hosea by Yvonne Sherwood (The Prostitute and the Prophet: Hosea's Marriage in...