The Museum of the Bible: A Critical Introduction [Paperback]

Bringing together nationally and internationally-known scholars, The Museum of the Bible: A Critical Introduction analyzes the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., from a variety of perspectives and disciplinary positions, including biblical studies, history, archaeology, Judaic studies, and religion and public life. The Museum of the Bible is poised to wield unparalleled influence on the national popular imagination of the Bibles contents, history, and uses through time. This volume provides critical tools by which a broad public of scholars and students alike can assess the Museum of the Bibles presentation of its vast collection and wrestle with the thorny interpretive issues and complex histories that are at risk of being obscured when private funds put a major museum near the National Mall.

Jill Hicks-Keeton is assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Oklahoma.

Cavan Concannon is associate professor of religion at the University of Southern California.

This volume is remarkable not only for the depth of its analysis, the close scrutiny of the Museums exhibits, and the rhetorical strategies and structures it intends to expose. It is singular in its effort to critically resist the efforts of an institution that habitually co-opts and commandeers the research and pedigrees of individual scholars and the institutions they represent...Jill Hicks-Keeton and Cavan Concannon show that the academy will not be so easily dismissed or purchased, and that even if the Museum of the Bible seeks to control the meaning of the biblical texts it presents, it will not succeed in controlling the narrative about itself. Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden, authors of Bible Nation

When billionaire mega-donors with strong ideological leanings can buy their own scholars and create their own historical and cultural narratives, the scholarly enterprise is in peril; perhaps no more so than when the subject matter is religious truth and alã²