Editorial Foreword
Abstract
Editorial Editorial Foreword SAGE Publications, Inc. 201010.1177/1476993X10367741 © The Author(s) The Author(s) Alan J.Hauser Department of Philosophy and Religion Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608, USA, hauseraj@appstate.edu JonathanKlawans Department of Religion Boston University 145 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215, USA, jklawans@bu.edu ScotMcKnight Department of Religious Studies North Park University 3225 West Foster Avenue Chicago, IL 60625, USA, smcknight@northpark.edu SchuylerKaufman 114 Greer Hall Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608, USA, schuylerkaufman@gmail.com Contemporary biblical scholarship is changing at a rapid pace. The variety of methods for interpreting the Bible has increased dramatically in recent years, as is shown, for example, by the growing interest in literary approaches such as narrative criticism, and in approaches focused on areas outside both literary and biblical research, for instance, the recent articles on biblical themes as interpreted in the cinema. The past twenty-five years have seen a growing interest by biblical scholars in structuralist criticism, reader response criticism, rhetorical criticism, social-scientific criticism, feminist interpreta- tion, ideological criticism and deconstructive criticism, in addition to major advances in the work being done on the broader contexts within which ancient Israel and early Christianity developed. Long-standing methods of research have undergone substantial reappraisal, as, for instance,