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The Bible continues to be a rallying point for many
religious Americans and a stumbling block for others
who criticize those with religious commitments.
The Bible also continues to be used as a tool of
polemic or a whipping boy. Should its precepts be
set up in public places? Or should instruction in
its contents be banned in public schools? Strident
voices on the left and right have opinions about
the Bible and its place in contemporary American
culture. This issue of Reflections will probably not
resolve debate about the role of the Bible on the
contemporary scene. It will, we hope, say something
to both believers and nonbelievers alike about the
ways in which contemporary students of the Bible
make sense of this complex mélange of ancient law,
pious prayer, and moving story.
The world of contemporary biblical scholarship is an amazingly diverse arena in which scholars of different faith commitments, who are steeped in very different modes of inquiry, explore and expound the Sacred Text. Literary critics plumb the symbolism, the irony, and the rhetorical effects of biblical texts while social critics probe the structures of Israelite society and the patronage structures of the Greco- Roman world within which the New Testament took shape. Feminist critics explore the roles accorded to women, listen for their voices, and note the ways in which they can be marginalized. Postmodern critics argue about the ways in which meaning is constructed by the various readers of the texts. The amazing diversity of voices and perspectives, evident every year in the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion, reflects the diversity of contemporary readers of Scripture in the pews of American congregations.
