The Invention of the Biblical Scholar

Book excerpt: In this "tale of two disciplines," Stephen D. Moore and Yvonne Sherwood invite the reader into a paradox: just as the wider field of literary studies has now come to operate "after theory," biblical scholars continue their long search for an elusive Holy Grail?a definitive literary-critical theory. Understanding that paradox requires revisiting the peculiar history by which the curious figure of the biblical scholar was invented during the Enlightenment, and how contemporary biblical scholarship continues?however unwittingly?to pursue Enlightenment goals.