An interview with Athalya Brenner

Fortress Press: What’s the most exciting thing about the contextual readings of the Bible that are featured in the Texts@Contexts series?

Athalya Brenner: For me the most interesting thing is the variety. For example, look at Hagar. When you read the relevant biblical texts (Genesis 16 and 21) anywhere in the world the text is basically the same, taking into account small modifications caused by translation. But your perspective, when you read it in Africa or in Finland, is obviously different, as are your vested interests. Consequently, the result will be different. On the other hand, some similarities remain—not least because our readers are scholars, using “classical” modes of Bible scholarship as well as developing their own place- and time-bound perspectives. And this is exactly what we are after, combinations of specificity and singularity, to reflect the paradox of globalization, which is a universal leveler but also enables difference and even foregrounds it. We hope that the multivocality we are aiming at will attract readers who believe, like we do, that the Bible belongs to everyone everywhere.

FP: How do people connect with the Bible outside a faith community? Why should we care about the Bible if not for religious reasons?

AB: People connect with the Bible whether they want to or not, at least as far as Jews and Christians are concerned. The Bible is a cultural artifact in the wider sense of the word, a consumer product if you wish. It is ever-present in so-called Western culture, from entertainment to social norms to morality to gender relations to legal systems to ideologies to politics. It has a bearing on everybody’s lives, whether we are directly interested in it or not. As such, as an acting cultural agent, the Bible does deserve studied and known by every educated person.

FP: How would you describe the field of Hebrew Bible scholarship in its current state? Where are we headed, and is it the right direction?

AB: Some scholars will mourn the passing of a “classical” Hebrew Bible study, in the sense that fewer Universities now demand that students read the Bible in the original languages before they become scholars. This indeed is a great loss that will affect generations of scholars to come. On the other hand, areas of inquiry that were considered off-limit by older, positivistic, “objective” scholarship are now coming to the fore. Hebrew Bible studies, slowly but noticeably, is joining areas of interest—and concern—that have recently been developed in general humanistic, social, and cultural studies, such as gender analysis, postcolonial studies, ideological criticism, and more. This is a huge liberation, a step forward; and when combined with the “older” textual and literary Bible criticism yields exiting results.