De-Introducing the New Testament

Davina C. Lopez is the author of Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul's Mission (2008).Todd Penner is the author of Contextualizing Gender in Early Christian Discourse (with Caroline Vander Stichele, 2009) and In Praise of Christian Origins: Stephen and the Hellenists in Lukan Apologetic Historiography (2004). Both Lopez and Penner conducted research for this book as scholars-in-residence at the Burke Library of Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University between 2010 and 2011. In addition, they are both Senior Editors for the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies (2014) and have co-authored numerous essays together related to method and its consequence for interpretation in the study of the New Testament.

• Acknowledgments ix(De-)Introduction 1Seeing Old Stones Anew 1Introducing the New Testament as Introducing TraditionalNew Testament Scholarship 4Introducing Criticisms of Traditional New Testament Scholarship 9Introducing De-Introducing the New Testament 171 The Order of New Testament Things: Questioning Methods and Meanings 25The Bone-Box of James, “the Brother of Jesus” 25Ways of Knowing a Subject of Study 31Ordering Principles in the Study of the New Testament 35Ways of Knowing New Testament “Things” 622 Foregrounding New Testament Backgrounds: Contextualizing Interpretation 71Jew” or “Judean”? The Present Confronts the Past 71Introducing the New Testament: Making Meaning with the Context 76Backgrounding the Backgrounds Approach 83Backgrounding the Character of Early Christianity: Liberty against Tyranny 97Contexts Matter, Ancient and Modern 1103 Objects, Objectives, and Objectivities: Material and Visual Culture and New Testament Studies 119Of Fragments and Forgeries 119Archaeology and the Making of Objects 122Excavating Discourses that Produce Ancient Objects 133What Do We Do with Ancient Objects? 145What Do We Want with Ancient Objects? 1604 Brand(ish)ing Biblical Scholars(hip): New Testament Studies and Neoliberal Subjectivity 169Who Can Be a “New Testament Scholar?” 169Neoliberalism and the Politics of Identity 173Branding as a Practice of Neoliberal Subjectivity 183Branding New Testament Scholars(hip) 191The One-Dimensional New Testament Scholar? 205Back to the Future: Concluding Observations on History, Method, and Theory in New Testament Studies 215Index 000

Lopez, associate professor of religious studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg FL, suggest that part of the radical potential of de-introducing the NT lies in the refusal to give up on history, and historical criticism, while continuing to think through methodological questions and issues in the discipline (New Testament Abstracts 2016)