Reception History and Biblical Studies Theory and Practice

How do we begin to carry out such a vast task-the examination of three millennia of diverse uses and influences of the biblical texts? Where can the interested scholar find information on methods and techniques applicable to the many and varied ways in which these have happened?

Through a series of examples of reception history practitioners at work and of their reflections this volume sets the agenda for biblical reception, as it begins to chart the near-infinite series of complex interpretive 'events' that have been generated by the journey of the biblical texts down through the centuries. The chapters consider aspects as diverse as political and economic factors, cultural location, the discipline of Biblical Studies, and the impact of scholarly preconceptions, upon reception history. Topics covered include biblical figures and concepts, contemporary music, paintings, children's Bibles, and interpreters as diverse as Calvin, Lenin, and Nick Cave.

Emma England is Guest Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her publications include work in children's Bibles and comics.

William John Lyons is Reader in Biblical Interpretation in the Department of Religion and Theology, University of Bristol, UK.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Explorations in the Reception of the Bible
Emma England and John Lyons
Reception History, Historical-Criticism, and Biblical Studies
Ch. 1. Biblical Studies on Holiday? A Personal View of Reception History.
Susan Gillingham, University of Oxford, UK
Ch. 2 What is reception history, and what happens to you if you do it?
James E. Harding, University of Otago, New Zealand
Ch. 3 The End of Reception History, a Grand Narrative for Biblical Studies and the Neoliberal Bible.
James G. Crossley, University of Sheffield, UK
Ch. 4 Visitors, Gatekeepers and Receptionists: Reflections on the shape of Biblical Studies and the role of reception history.
Jonathan Morgan, University of Chester, UK
Conceptualising Reception History
Ch. 5 The Head of John and its Reception or How to Conceptualize “Reception History.
Caroline Vander Stichele, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ch. 6 What Can a Text Do? Reception History as an Ethology of the Biblical Text.
Brennan Breed, Columbia Theological Seminary, USA
Ch. 7 The End of Biblical Interpretation—the Beginning of Reception History? Reading the Bible in the Spaces of Literature
Samuel Tongue, University of Glasgow, UK
Ch. 8 Reception History of the Bible: Prospects of a new frontier in African biblical studies.
Masiiwa Ragies Gunda, ZEGU, Zimbabwe
Implications, Difficulties and Solutions
Ch. 9 Unlikely Bedfellows: Lenin, Calvin and Nick Cave.
Roland Boer, University of Newcastle, Australia
Ch. 10 Tracing Patmos Through the Centuries.
Ian Boxall, Catholic University of America, USA
Ch. 11 Digital Humanities and Reception History; or the Joys and Horrors of Databases.
Emma England, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ch. 12 Layers of Reception of Jephthah's Daughter (Judges 11) Among the AmaNazaretha: From the Early 1900s to Today.
Gerald West, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Bible, Reception and Popular Music
Ch. 13 The story of Leonard Cohen's Who By Fire, a prayer in the Cairo Genizah, Babylonian astrology and related rabbinical texts.
Helen R. Jacobus, University College London, UK
Ch. 14 Time to cut him down to size?” A Critical Examination of Depeche Mode's Alternative “John of Patmos”.
William John Lyons, University of Bristol, UK
Ch. 15 “God,” “God Part II,” and “God Part III”: Exploring the Anxiety of Influence in John Lennon, U2, and Larry Norman.
Michael J. Gilmour, Providence University, Canada
Ch. 16 High, Low and In Between: Reception History and the Sociology of Religion and Popular Music.
Ibrahim Abraham, University of Helsinki. Finland