The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously

Jacques Berlinerblau052161824X, 9780521618243

Today’s secularists too often have very little accurate knowledge about religion, and even less desire to learn. This is problematic insofar as their sense of self is constructed in opposition to religion. Above all, the secularist is not a Jew, is not a Christian, not a Muslim, and so on. But is it intellectually responsible to define one’s identity against something that one does not understand? And what happens when these secularists weigh in on contentious political issues, blind to the religious back-story or concerns that inevitably inform these debates? In The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously Jacques Berlinerblau suggests that atheists and agnostics must take stock of that which they so adamantly oppose. Defiantly maintaining a shallow understanding of religion, he argues, is not a politically prudent strategy in this day and age. But this book is no less critical of many believers, who–Berlinerblau contends–need to emancipate themselves from ways of thinking about their faith that are dangerously simplistic, irrational and outdated. Exploring the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, from the perspective of a specialist, nonbeliever, and critic of the academic religious studies establishment, Berlinerblau begins by offering a provocative answer to the question of ”who wrote the Bible?” The very peculiar way in which this text was composed provides a key to understanding its unique power (and vulnerability) in the modern public sphere. In separate chapters, he looks at how the sparse and contradictory words of Scripture are invoked in contemporary disputes about Jewish intermarriage and homosexuality in the Christian world. Finally, he examines ways in which the Qur’an might be subject to the types of secular interpretation advocated throughout this book. Cumulatively, this book is a first attempt to reinvigorate an estimable secular, intellectual tradition, albeit one that is currently experiencing a moment of crisis.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Half-title……Page 3
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
Contents……Page 9
Preface and Acknowledgments……Page 13
Nonbelievers, the bible, and religion……Page 17
The current crisis of secular intellectual culture……Page 20
“Secularism” redefined……Page 23
Conclusion: the challenge for secular intellectuals……Page 25
Suggestions for further reading……Page 28
Part one The composition of the hebrew bible……Page 31
1 Who Wrote the Bible? Ancient Responses……Page 33
Creativity versus stenography……Page 34
Texts just happen!: the biblical conception of the origin of texts……Page 38
A flawed equation: torah = the first five books = the writing of moses……Page 40
Conclusion: the hebrew bible as an unself-conscious artifact……Page 44
Suggestions for further reading……Page 45
2 “Who Wrote the Bible?”: Modern Responses……Page 46
The documentary hypothesis and the birth of modernist exegesis……Page 48
More moderns: tradition history, inner-biblical exegesis, and the haggadic hypothesis……Page 50
Conclusion: assemblage, not authorship……Page 54
Suggestions for further reading……Page 56
3 A Secular Answer to “Who Wrote the Bible?”……Page 58
How many wrote the hebrew bible?……Page 59
The bible’s meanings never meant……Page 62
Possibilities of meaning……Page 64
Conclusion: secular hermeneutics – a parasitic enterprise……Page 67
Suggestions for further reading……Page 68
Part two The interpreters of the hebrew bible……Page 71
4 Why Is There So Much Biblical Interpretation?……Page 73
Power and the bible’s appeal……Page 74
Reason one: the interpretive injunction……Page 76
Reason two: interpretive necessity and the quest for the better model……Page 78
Reason three: the bible’s divine proximity (“prisoners of hope”)……Page 81
Conclusion: “i love you. you’re perfect. now change!”……Page 83
Suggestions for further reading……Page 84
5 Introducing Biblical Scholars and Secular Hermeneutics……Page 86
The ethos of the exegete……Page 89
Hermeneutics and sociology: the postmodern contestation of modernist exegesis……Page 94
Conclusion: politics and scholarship……Page 98
Suggestions for further reading……Page 99
Part three politics and scripture……Page 101
6 On Jewish Intermarriage: The Bible Is
Open to Interpretation……Page 103
Against intermarriage: the canaanite nations……Page 105
Ezra and nehemiah……Page 106
Preferring voluptuousness to god: intermarriage in hebrew scriptures……Page 108
The bible betrayed?……Page 110
Conclusion: scripture as simulacrum……Page 113
Suggestions for further reading……Page 116
7 Same-Sex Eroticism and Jerry Falwell……Page 117
“Lying downs of a woman”: hebrew scripture’s ambiguous testimony on homoeroticism……Page 118
The new testament evidence……Page 122
Scholars, demagogues, secularists, and public discussions of homosexuality……Page 125
Conclusion: “now it can be exegeted!”……Page 128
Suggestions for further reading……Page 130
8 The Secular Qur’an?……Page 132
The hebrew bible and the qur’an: a comparison of textual consciousness……Page 133
Interpretive quiet zones and hotspots……Page 135
Modern biblical scholarship: heroism and latent secularizing thrust……Page 137
Secularizing the qur’an: the triple obstacles……Page 139
Conclusion: the new mu‘tazila……Page 142
Suggestions for further reading……Page 144
Conclusion: Beyond Church and State: New
Directions for Secularism……Page 146
The secular tyranny myth……Page 147
Secular works: new projects for secular intellectuals……Page 151
Done?: the inescapability of religion……Page 155
Introduction: secularists and the not godless world……Page 159
1. Who wrote the bible? (ancient responses)……Page 163
2. “Who wrote the bible?”: modern responses……Page 169
3. A secular answer to “who wrote the bible?”……Page 175
4. Why is there so much biblical interpretation?……Page 179
5. Introducing biblical scholars and secular hermeneutics……Page 182
6. On jewish intermarriage: the bible is open to interpretation……Page 186
7. Same-sex eroticism and jerry falwell……Page 197
8. The secular qur’an?……Page 205
Conclusion: beyond church and state: new directions for secularism……Page 210
Index of Biblical Citations……Page 215
Index of Qur’anic Citations……Page 219
Index of Rabbinic, Early, Jewish, and Patristic Citations……Page 220
Index……Page 222