What this collection aims to do is to make visible the spectacular ways in which the vernacular has been incorporated into current interpretative practices. It contains practical appropriations of biblical narratives, informed by the vernacular heritage and by the reader's own identity, and spells out the theoretical aim and ambit of such an enterprise. More importantly, it tries to place vernacular reading among the ongoing critical movements of our time, such as postmodernism and postcolonialism. Though the collection celebrates the arrival of the vernacular, it is also aware of the dangers of inventing an 'idealized indigene' and of partaking in mythmaking. In addition to the editor, the contributors include Laura Donaldson, Gerald West, Thomas Thangaraj, David Adamo, Dalila Naya-Pot and George Mulrain.

Author Biography

R. S. Sugirtharajah is Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics, University of Birmingham. Recent publications include: The Bible and Empire: Postcolonial Explorations (Cambridge, 2005), Postcolonial Criticism and Bibical Interpretation (Oxford, 2002), Postcolonial Reconfigurations: An alternative way of reading the Bible and doing Theology, SCM Press, London, 2003.