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<p>Acknowledgments ix</p> <p>(De-)Introduction 1</p> <p>Seeing Old Stones Anew 1</p> <p>Introducing the New Testament as Introducing Traditional</p> <p>New Testament Scholarship 4</p> <p>Introducing Criticisms of Traditional New Testament Scholarship 9</p> <p>Introducing De-Introducing the New Testament 17</p> <p><b>1 The Order of New Testament Things: Questioning Methods and Meanings 25</b></p> <p>The Bone-Box of James, “the Brother of Jesus” 25</p> <p>Ways of Knowing a Subject of Study 31</p> <p>Ordering Principles in the Study of the New Testament 35</p> <p>Ways of Knowing New Testament “Things” 62</p> <p><b>2 Foregrounding New Testament Backgrounds: Contextualizing Interpretation 71</b></p> <p>Jew” or “Judean”? The Present Confronts the Past 71</p> <p>Introducing the New Testament: Making Meaning with the Context 76</p> <p>Backgrounding the Backgrounds Approach 83</p> <p>Backgrounding the Character of Early Christianity: Liberty against Tyranny 97</p> <p>Contexts Matter, Ancient and Modern 110</p> <p><b>3 Objects, Objectives, and Objectivities: Material and Visual Culture and New Testament Studies 119</b></p> <p>Of Fragments and Forgeries 119</p> <p>Archaeology and the Making of Objects 122</p> <p>Excavating Discourses that Produce Ancient Objects 133</p> <p>What Do We Do with Ancient Objects? 145</p> <p>What Do We Want with Ancient Objects? 160</p> <p><b>4 Brand(ish)ing Biblical Scholars(hip):</b> New Testament Studies and Neoliberal Subjectivity 169</p> <p>Who Can Be a “New Testament Scholar?” 169</p> <p>Neoliberalism and the Politics of Identity 173</p> <p>Branding as a Practice of Neoliberal Subjectivity 183</p> <p>Branding New Testament Scholars(hip) 191</p> <p>The One-Dimensional New Testament Scholar? 205</p> <p>Back to the Future: Concluding Observations on History, Method, and Theory in New Testament Studies 215</p> <p>Index 000</p>

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)

<b>Davina C. Lopez </b>is the author of <i>Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul's Mission</i> (2008).<br /><br /><b>Todd Penner </b>is the author of <i>Contextualizing Gender in Early Christian Discourse </i>(with Caroline Vander Stichele, 2009) and <i>In Praise of Christian Origins: Stephen and the Hellenists in Lukan Apologetic Historiography </i>(2004). <br /><br />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 <i>Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies </i>(2014) and have co-authored numerous essays together related to method and its consequence for interpretation in the study of the New Testament.

<i>De-Introducing the New Testament</i> offers an exciting and provocative look at how we conduct critical New Testament scholarship in our present historical moment and socio-economic landscape. Challenging some of the methodologies and trajectories central to the area, the authors use the term “de-introducing” to denote a practice of unmasking the most basic categories and frameworks in the field so that we might better understand and appraise what discourses are at work therein. The authors acknowledge the interplay of ancient texts and modern disciplinary formation as important sites for the expression of identity and power relationships, and raise questions about the connections we seek to cultivate with the past.<br /> <br /> Engaging with several dominant rhetorical paths in the field, the authors raise critical questions about the stories we tell in the field of New Testament studies: about who we are as New Testament scholars, what it is we think we do in the discipline, on what terms, and to what ends. Ultimately, the authors argue for a renewed commitment to the defamiliarizing power of New Testament studies and a reclaiming of the discipline as one that exemplifies the best practices of the humanities and the radical potential of liberative ethics.

<p>The critical focus in <i>De-Introducing the New Testament</i> on the modernist genre of writing and type of intellectual-cultural-political practice that is the “Introduction to the New Testament” is long overdue and much needed. The writers are bold and expansive in their critique and in their proposals. Their book merits serious attention. I hope it provokes sustained rethinking and reorientation.<br /><b>Vincent L. Wimbush, Institute for Signifying Scriptures </b></p>

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