Abstract
When I review a potential textbook, I always ask two questions: Who will it teach; and How will it teach? With respect to the first question, the Abingdon Introduction to the Bible (hereafter, AIB) is unambiguously directed at a confessional and broadly ecumenical audience. The authors distinguish their work from other Bible textbooks by noting that it is written by a Jew, a Protestant, and a Catholic, each of whom is “transparent about (his) religious background” (p. 3). The authors rightfully critique other textbooks for adopting one of two problematic stances. Some, they argue, are too narrowly confessional, presenting the Bible from a very limited perspective. Others, by contrast, bracket out issues of faith entirely, adopting a falsely neutral posture. Herein lies one of the book's great strengths: it provides religious students from a variety of backgrounds with a sympathetic guide through the minefield of biblical criticism.
The identity of the authors, however, also constitutes one of the book's most significant weaknesses. It is disappointing that a book that intends to be broadly ecumenical could find no space in its collaborative authorship for a woman or a person of color. Kaminsky, Lohr, and Reasoner are all fine scholars, but they are hardly representative of the undergraduate and seminary classrooms where their book will be assigned. Representation matters, and it should matter especially in a book that positions itself as a corrective to unreflective neutrality and universality. Moreover, the book's authorship has implications for the book's content. In their chapter on modern biblical criticism, the authors provide a woefully inadequate discussion of feminist critical perspectives. They note in passing that the Bible reflects the patriarchal perspectives of its culture; the rest of the space is devoted to highlighting the Bible's positive (“proto-feminist”) portrayals of female characters like Tamar and Rahab (36–37). This is hardly a fair representation of the scope of feminist scholarship and the critical interests that it represents, and it risks leaving students with the perception that feminist scholarship is mostly about celebrating the Bible's positive portrayals of women.
That being said, AIB is otherwise very well crafted for use in undergraduate and seminary classrooms. The authors write in a register that is academic yet free from jargon, lucid and sometimes even elegant in its phrasing. They often use analogies to illustrate difficult conceptual points: for instance, they liken differences between Jewish and Christian canons of scripture to watching different versions of the same movie, with different points of emphasis (2). The book also enhances readability by presuming no prior knowledge of the Bible on the part of its readership. Early chapters address topics like the meaning of “Bible,” composition and canonization, religious interpretation, and modern historical-critical study. These provide an adequate introduction to the multiplicity of biblical canons, the canonical process, and the various ways that people have read the Bible throughout history.
The remainder of the book is a series of discussions of individual books, arranged in canonical order. This leads me to the second question I pose to introductory textbooks: How will it teach? As an introduction to Jewish and Christian scripture, it would teach reasonably well. Each chapter contains four sections. First, an Introduction and Overview situates the biblical book in its socio-historical and canonical contexts. Next, Controversies and Debates provides a brief discussion of major critical issues in the biblical book. Each chapter ends with sections on the book's use in Jewish and Christian tradition. In an introductory course, these chapters would function nicely to scaffold primary source readings by providing background information and by alerting students to potential points of confusion.
The book, however, is not well suited to every undergraduate or seminary classroom. Teachers wishing to engage explicitly in source, form, or redaction criticism should avoid this book. While those issues are discussed briefly in chapter 4 (30–34), they make almost no impact whatsoever in the discussions of specific books. This is not to suggest that the book is naively uncritical—it acknowledges the existence of multiple sources, for instance in the book of Numbers (81) and in the Gospels (265). Preference, however, is almost always given to holistic treatments of the text, even where different perspectives are clearly represented. For instance, the authors attribute pro-monarchic and anti-monarchic perspectives in 1 Samuel to different “voices,” without engaging the question of composition history. This is not a flaw in the book—the authors choose (wisely, in my judgment) to avoid composition history rather than give it short shrift. That decision nevertheless makes the book inappropriate for any classroom where the Bible is studied primarily within its ancient Israelite, Judahite, and early Judean contexts.
In conclusion, AIB would serve reasonably well as an introductory textbook in a critical undergraduate or seminary course designed to present the Bible as Jewish and/or Christian scripture. Its modest price point, moreover, opens up the possibility of pairing it with other books that privilege marginal voices, thus providing a counterbalance to AIB's limited authorial perspective.