Vincent L. Wimbush is the former president of the Society of Biblical Literature, the founding director of The Institute for Signifying Scriptures. He is the author or editor of several books, most recently MisReading America: Scriptures and Difference, White Men's Magic: Scripturalization as Slavery, and Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon.

• Preface Introduction: Scripturalectics as Turns in the Human Quest for Meaning I. "Aru Oyim De De De Dei!": Mask-ing Meaning Ii. "Pacification of the Primitive Tribes": Meaning as White Savagery Iii. "We Have Fallen Apart": The Rupture of Meaning Summary Conclusion: The End of Scriptures, the Beginning of Scripturalectics

Scripturalectics offers a rigorous proposal that refocuses attention from texts to power relations, from disciplinary exegesis and apologetics to interdisciplinary interrogations of worldview formation, and from affirming the stability of textual meanings and practices to noticing ruptures in knowledge construction and reification. It is a challenge to biblical scholarship, to be sure, and a challenge even to those who would claim 'innovation' in the field. That said, all scholars of religion and readers of 'scriptures' might do well to re-examine categories, assumptions, and power relations that inform our discourses and practices.

Vincent L. Wimbush is the former president of the Society of Biblical Literature, the founding director of The Institute for Signifying Scriptures. He is the author or editor of several books, most recently MisReading America: Scriptures and Difference, White Men's Magic: Scripturalization as Slavery, and Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon.

• Preface Introduction: Scripturalectics as Turns in the Human Quest for Meaning I. "Aru Oyim De De De Dei!": Mask-ing Meaning Ii. "Pacification of the Primitive Tribes": Meaning as White Savagery Iii. "We Have Fallen Apart": The Rupture of Meaning Summary Conclusion: The End of Scriptures, the Beginning of Scripturalectics

Scripturalectics offers a rigorous proposal that refocuses attention from texts to power relations, from disciplinary exegesis and apologetics to interdisciplinary interrogations of worldview formation, and from affirming the stability of textual meanings and practices to noticing ruptures in knowledge construction and reification. It is a challenge to biblical scholarship, to be sure, and a challenge even to those who would claim 'innovation' in the field. That said, all scholars of religion and readers of 'scriptures' might do well to re-examine categories, assumptions, and power relations that inform our discourses and practices.

Vincent L. Wimbush is the former president of the Society of Biblical Literature, the founding director of The Institute for Signifying Scriptures. He is the author or editor of several books, most recently MisReading America: Scriptures and Difference, White Men's Magic: Scripturalization as Slavery, and Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon.

• Preface Introduction: Scripturalectics as Turns in the Human Quest for Meaning I. "Aru Oyim De De De Dei!": Mask-ing Meaning Ii. "Pacification of the Primitive Tribes": Meaning as White Savagery Iii. "We Have Fallen Apart": The Rupture of Meaning Summary Conclusion: The End of Scriptures, the Beginning of Scripturalectics

Scripturalectics offers a rigorous proposal that refocuses attention from texts to power relations, from disciplinary exegesis and apologetics to interdisciplinary interrogations of worldview formation, and from affirming the stability of textual meanings and practices to noticing ruptures in knowledge construction and reification. It is a challenge to biblical scholarship, to be sure, and a challenge even to those who would claim 'innovation' in the field. That said, all scholars of religion and readers of 'scriptures' might do well to re-examine categories, assumptions, and power relations that inform our discourses and practices.