Mind the Gap: Modern and Postmodern in Biblical Studies

This article is a critical engagement with the theoretical entailments of postmodernism and the implications for a more sophisticated historical-critical method. Topics include the distinction between strong and weak versions of postmodernism, the conceptual and ethical problems of the strong version in biblical scholarship, and the relationship between the modern history of biblical studies and the Enlightenment project (in dialogue with recent postmodern scholarship). A rapprochement between a viable postmodernism and an enlightened modernism is desirable, despite entrenched ideologies and institutional constraints.