New Approaches to Biblical Literary Studies

Dear Colleagues,

There are many interpretative possibilities embodied in the term “Biblical literatures” and the related terms “the Bible as literature” or “the Bible in literature,” with intersections that are inherently multi-disciplinary, drawing on religion, literature, history, education, and cultural studies, and emerging from both academic and religious institutional contexts. Expanding the inherent relationships between scripture and literature, authors and critics from a range of national traditions have drawn on varied scriptural resources and allusions in their writing throughout history; religious traditions have likewise used tools and methods of literary study to build new interpretations of ancient texts.

Reanimating discussions of “Biblical literatures” is an especially timely project in 2026, and not only because of the international rise of political and educational movements advocating anew for teaching the Christian Bible in public and secular school settings; that is, there is new attention on the very definition of scripture and its role in educating a “literate” society, even as that attention highlights the complex hermeneutical relationship between Jewish scripture (the Tanak or Torah), and the Christian Bible, which claims the Jewish scriptures as its “Old Testament” while reinterpreting those very scriptures in the “New Testament.” “The Bible as literature” likewise has a rich history as an often-required course in university English departments since the 19th century, while the oldest of academic disciplines, religious studies, increasingly offers new approaches to these ancient texts from a range of religious perspectives.

The aim of this Special Issue is to explore and present contemporary research that draws on some of the many connections between “the Bible” and “literature,” engaging the rich interdisciplinary and multi-faith networks while perhaps challenging older assumptions about the field.

The scope of the volume will ideally include a variety of approaches, engaging with, but not restricted to, the following questions:

• How are “scripture” and” literature” defined and experienced in religious and/or secular settings now and in past eras, and what might we learn through theoretical or philosophical explorations of those terms?
• How has the term “the Bible” been used or challenged in different traditions, cultures, and historical moments, and how has the generalized use of that term affected Jewish–Christian relations, literary or otherwise?
• What new research explores how literary and scriptural texts intersect and converse, and how have specific authors or works imaged and practiced that relationship?
• How do different disciplines and institutions (educational, religious, political, cultural) manage the complex relationships between scripture and literature and how do those relationships manifest in a different historical and national contexts?
• What challenges and opportunities do teachers find in designing courses that focus on the intersections of scripture and literature, and what new approaches does our current moment demand?

Dr. Cynthia Scheinberg
Guest Editor

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