Exegesis has long been characterized by a broad disciplinary diversity, but also ambiguity - combining biblical studies, exegesis, early Jewish studies, early Christian studies, Ancient Near Eastern studies, Greco-Roman, and classical studies in various ways. This is to say nothing of the more recent development of contextual and engaged exegesis as reflected in feminist, liberation, postcolonial and queer Biblical exegesis. Furthermore, how and why scholars study the Bible varies, not only across confessional or cultural contexts, but across institutional-academic contexts.
The book engages these complex methodological questions about the interrelations of context, institutions, and knowledge production in relation to such issues as religious belonging, ethnicity, political identity, and postcolonial pasts, among other issues of contemporary importance.