Although the final four chapters will definitely cure some of the common ignorance that exists about how various people approach biblical interpretation today, I wish it could have gone further. The chapter on feminist interpretation is very good, and even does a fair job at explaining feminist interpretation of literature generally. The next three chapters are all on Liberation Theology, but while this is an interesting topic, were three chapters really necessary?
I do hope that more people will learn to understand how and why Liberation Theology developed, but I'm sure that the editors would have been advised to include a couple of other chapters devoted to topics like modern fundamentalist interpretation, or some of the smaller "cult-like" Christian groups like the Branch Davidians.
One advantage this book has over similar volumes on the history of the Bible is the same thing which increases its cost: a vast array of pictures and illustrations. Most academic books rely on text alone, but this volume intersperses quite a lot of relevant images right alongside the articles, creating a more dramatic and direct impact. For example, it is nice to actually see the portion of the Merneptah steele which shows the earliest extra-biblical reference to Israel which we know of.
One addition which also would have been nice is some sort of timeline - and because this book presents a variety of perspectives on biblical scholarship, perhaps a comparison of "conservative" and "liberal" dating of the various books and events would have been especially useful. This would serve to demonstrate just where there is consensus, where there are disagreements, and how great those disagreements are.
Although I have mentioned quite a few things I wish could have been included in this book, I don't want to give the impression that I think it isn't worth having - quite the contrary, as a matter of fact. Maybe I'm just disappointed that it isn't quite "perfect," but some of the possible additions seem obvious and basic to me. Nevertheless, this is an ambitous book, and it can serve as a valuable reference book for anyone interested in biblical history and research - and even for undergraduate students who expect to take classes in these subjects.
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