Reviews of Books / Comptes Rendus: The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition James R. Edwards Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2009. xxxiv + 360 pp.

Abstract

material being examined, but also in style and method. This diversity is admittedly bittersweet since it is effective in presenting various approaches of the vast landscape that is popular culture, but fails in convincing that such disparate examinations are always valid. While reading many of the essays, one wonders if the connections being made between pop culture and the Bible may be solely based upon the subjective opinion of the writer. As Phillip Culbertson writes in his essay, ''what I write in this section is, admittedly, conjecture . . . The following are, therefore, my own ruminations'' (73). In the final section: ''Texts and Their Afterlives in Literature Again: A Frame,'' there is again only one essay and, like Gilmour's essay in the first section of the book, this essay by Tina Pippin, titled: ''Daemons and Angels: The End of the World According to Philip Pullman,'' also deals with the Bible and literature.The sections and divisions are an oddity of this monograph, whereby the first and third section deal with one essay apiece and are both on a similar topic (literature). These two minute sections bracket the outer part of a sizeable collection of nine essays. Since the nine ''sandwiched'' pieces all deal with such varying aspects of popular culture (music, literature, graphic novels, film, television) it might have been simpler and clearer to avoid using sections altogether for this book or, if the need for sections was necessary, the editors could have broken up the articles into more logical groupings: a section specific to articles on music (6 essays) and a section with the miscellaneous works (5 essays).Overall, the monograph is a good and interesting read since it engages a fun topic, which is the Bible and popular culture. The variety of the treatises allows anyone picking up this book to connect with some aspect of it, though likely not with all. This book is an unavoidable source for anyone studying the Bible and popular culture, since the field is one in which the scholarly literature is wanting. In this respect, the collection of essays attempts to fill a void in this domain with an undertaking that covers so many different media. The book is recommended for the serious scholars studying the connection between pop culture and religion, but also for non-specialists who will undoubtedly have a fun time reading the various examinations between the Bible and contemporary music, television, and literature.