The Museum of the Bible: A Critical Introduction

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 Bible’s 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 Bible’s 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.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden Introduction Jill Hicks-Keeton and Cavan Concannon I. What’s the Bible Good For? Chapter 1 “It’s Complicated.” “No It’s Not.” : The Museum of the Bible, Problems and Solutions Margaret M. Mitchell Chapter 2 Exploring Race, Religion, and Slavery at the Museum of the Bible Terrence L. Johnson II. The Museum of Whose Bible? Chapter 3 Christian Supersessionism and the Problem of Diversity at the Museum of the Bible Jill Hicks-Keeton Chapter 4 Looking at the Bible Sideways: One Jewish Scholar’s Perspective Marc Zvi Brettler Chapter 5 Smoke and Mirrors: The Hebrew Bible Exhibit at the Museum of the Bible Mark Leuchter III. Archaeology, Israel, and the “Reliability” of the Bible Chapter 6 Theopolitics, Archaeology, and the Ideology of the Museum of the Bible Cavan Concannon Chapter 7 The Land of Israel and Bodily Pedagogy at the Museum of the Bible Sarah F. Porter IV. Materiality, Text, and the Produc

About the Author :
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.

Review :
This volume is remarkable not only for the depth of its analysis, the close scrutiny of the Museum’s 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. 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 authority. With this collection of essays, Hicks-Keeton and Concannon have marshalled a forceful response to the most well-funded of these religious programs, the Museum of the Bible. The book exposes the museum’s Christian supersessionism, the disingenuousness of its ecumenical posture, and its disinterest in cultivating thoughtful biblical readers and interpreters. These essays should find an audience among those who love the Bible in all of its multi-vocality and complexity; among students, educators and religious leaders alike; and also among those engaged in the work of interreligious understanding. Professors Cavan W. Concannon and Jill Hicks-Keeton have co-edited, The Museum of the Bible: A Critical Introduction, an insightful and necessary challenge to the Christian apologists behind MOTB. The volume combines a wealth of scholarship that ranges from politics to textual criticism, and beyond. The volume exemplifies the willingness of many modern academic scholars to confront misguided Christian apologetics masquerading as historical scholarship.