The Postmodern Bible provides what is as close as anyone will ever get to a contemporary handbook on "postmodern" methods of approaching, reading, using and interpreting the Bible. One might ask why such a book is needed. I would reply that this book is needed because it implicates the readers of the Bible in the matters it wishes to bring to bear in biblical study. This book attempts to show (in my estimation) that reading the Bible is a social act, a personal act, a political act and a cultural act. And this book preaches what it practices for it is written by a self-styled "Bible and Culture Collective", a group of scholarly "young turks" no less, who amply demonstrate that projects worked on together need not end up being mish-mashes of the wants and desires of those composing them.

This book has both direction and drive. In seven compact yet thorough discussions we are introduced, in theory and practice, to seven contemporary approaches to the practice of biblical reading. Many, if not all, of these (reader-response criticism, poststructuralism, feminist and womanist criticism) are hardly novel outside of the biblical field but then that seems the point of this book; that is, to attempt (or continue to attempt) to intergrate biblical studies ever more closely with, or into, literary studies and cultural studies. This seems the pervasive agenda of this book.

I must admit that I have an interest in reviewing this book, however. I was taught for three years as an undergraduate by one of the "Bible and Culture Collective", Stephen D. Moore. I can confirm that the Collective, if Moore be an example, do indeed practice what they preach in this book. I have to say it sets the Bible on fire in new and exciting ways. If you want to engage the Bible from some new angles or just want to get up date and clear in your mind on contemporary methods of biblical interpretation then get this book. It has no serious challengers in its field to date.

If you've ever been puzzled by the formula of 'post-modern' and 'biblical studies,' then you'd be wise to pick up this exhaustive and personable piece of academic fervor. Among others, The Postmodern Bible fuses epistemological, religious, and cultural frameworks into a textual craft that will keep you poised with more questions. I recommend this book to anyone who takes the Bible seriously - whether you're a theologian, academic, or a heady poser, you'll want to have this book on the shelves of your mind.

In his insightful and scholarly new book, The Control Of Biblical Meaning: Canon As Semiotic Mechanism, George Aichele (Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan) presents and responds to a series of key and seminal questions associated with the canon of the Bible. Professor Aichele is articulate and informative as he examines how the canon influences the meaning of the texts which compose it; whether texts can be "liberated" from the canon and what such liberation would do to both them and to the canon that contains them; what canonical status implies about the texts included in the Bible (as well as texts that excluded); and how canon influences or creates ideology and culture within the Christian community. The Control Of Biblical Meaning is fascinating, erudite treatise that is both "user friendly" and very highly recommended for personal as well as academically oriented biblical studies curriculum supplementation and reading lists.

Okay, I don't know how seriously this book is meant to be taken, but I'll go by the general heuristic that its best not to take anything too seriously. That said, the book is a collection of short essays by various individuals with a postmodern bent to it. The book relies on "fantasy theory" to explore the profuse collection of folklore and wisdom that is the Bible. The book earns five stars simply out of the bizarreness of topics presented, and originality of ideas.

For instance, one of the articles (Ezekiel's Axl) begins, "What if Axl Rose, tempermental singer from the heavy metal band Guns n' Roses, and Ezekiel, eccentric prophet from the Hebrew Bible, were to be compared with each other?" The reader can only stammer out . . . Dude man you've gotta be flipping me. One can only imagine the scene, some guy is sitting around reading the Book of (no doubt manic depressive but divinely inspired) Ezekiel one day and listening to (equally manic depressive and divinely inspired) Axl Rose as screaches out something to the effect of "Take me down to the Paradise City . . . ", when suddenly it occurs to him Paradise City = Kingdom of God.

Several of the essays deal with common heresies, e.g. Jesus set Judas up to do him in (its all part of the divine conspiracy errr . . . plan), etc. And the more interesting ones deal with blasphemy, gnosticism, and the future of civilization. The final essay deals with the works of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (one of the other science fiction writers who started his own religion besides Hubbard), and it explores his relationship with the early Gnostics. I must say that this essay reinvigorated my interest in Dick, who I had read intently in my youth, esp. VALIS, and is a good introduction to the man for those who look forward to learning about his bizarre ideas.