Ideological reading has been defined as a deliberate effort to read against the grain -- of texts, of disciplinary norms, of traditions, of cultures. It is a disturbing way to read because ideological criticism demands a high level of self-consciousness and makes an explicit, unabashed appeal to justice. As an ethically grounded act, ideological reading intends to raise critical consciousness about what is just and unjust about those lived relations that Althusser describes, and to change those power relationships for the better. It challenges readers to accept political responsibility for themselves and for the world in which they live. 

Ideological criticism in all its many forms is resistance reading. Resistance reading means different readings that resist the oppressive use of power in discourse. Resistance readings demonstrate the fundamental openness of texts and how meaning cannot be determined absolutely (that is, meaning cannot be decontextualized) but is itself resistant to ultimate or final interpretation. This is but another way of stating Bultmann's dictum that there are no presuppositionless readings of the New Testament. Resistant readings are always shaped by political interests. Dominant readings, by contrast, typically do not -- or will not -- admit to having political interests. 

For example, some of the broader questions raised by political readings of the Exodus-Conquest and Cross-Resurrection narratives include: Does the text or a particular reading of the text liberate? Does the reading bring about positive social change? Does the reading expose injustices of race, class, neo-colonialism, gender, and sexuality? Who is represented? Who is excluded? In other words, who is not there? Who is silent or silenced? Ideological critics take the position that because there is no nonideological reading of the Bible, there is no reading of the Bible that is not political or that does not have political consequences. The tendency to see the ideological effort in neat, binary oppositional categories too often gives confidence that the political or ethical reading is to be identified without remainder with the creation of contexts of justice and equality, and unethical readings are those that support structures of oppression. This binary reduction of issues has unfortunately led to the outright rejection of ideological critical readings as too dichotomized (e.g., between the oppressed and oppressor categories of liberation hermeneutics), or it has lead to a kind of "scripturephobia" (J. Michael Clark's term) on the part of some groups left marginalized by a well-intentioned but narrowly focused liberation reading. 

Take for example the dichotomy of "readings from above" that protect the status quo or Barthes's "essential enemy (the bourgeois norm)" (1972a:9) and "readings from below," from individuals and groups who announce their oppression. Dichotomies like this ignore the fact that a reader and context could be dominant in some aspects and marginalized in others. See, e.g., the relationship of feminist and womanist discourse.

Thus, in the final analysis, ideological criticism is a limited, reductionist term for a much larger context of cultural relations and processes. Ideological criticism is resisting, ruptured, incomplete, chaotic, yet imaginative. The interpretive conflicts that are inherent in reading biblical texts create the context for readings that decolonize, liberate, and continually subvert. Of course, this view of the play of interpretive conflicts is an ideal one, and the reality is most often turf battles and ego positioning. How does something viable happen out of conflict? The decentering of the subject that occurs with conflictual readings is never simply abstract or theoretical. For example, curriculum and pedagogy are both affected by changing the literary canon. The inescapable social location of every biblical reader does not remain static when readers are interacting and engaging with each other. 

Paul Armstrong has commented: "Unless openness to otherness includes the possibility that the encounter might change our mind, we are not really testing our beliefs but are merely disguising our dogmatic commitment to them ... We need to create structures that make it likely that our differences will productively confront each other and not just sit inertly side by side."   

Aichele, George and Pippin, Tina, eds. The Monstrous and the Unspeakable: The Bible as Fantastic Literature.  Sheffield Academic Press, 1997. Book cover image from Barnes and Noble.
PN 3435 .M667 1997

________.  Violence, Utopia, and the Kingdom of God: Fantasy and Ideology in the Bible. August 1998. Not yet available. 

Barrett, Michele.  The Politics of Truth: From Marx to Foucault.  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.
This volume employs the thought of Foucault to critique traditional Marxist definitions of ideology.  It calls for a post-Marxist critique of ideology by exposing the truth claims of traditional Marxist theories.  It also incorporates literary studies, sociological theory, and psychoanalysis in its examination of the power claims of ideological criticism.
JA 83 .B249 1991

Belo, Fernando. A Materialist Reading of the Gospel of Mark. Translated from the French by Matthew J.O'Connell. Maryknoll, N.Y. : Orbis Books, 1981.
Belo utilizes a detailed structuralist approach to reading the Gospel of Mark.  He formulates a "materialist ecclesiology" based on Latin American liberation theology.
BS2585.5 .B4413 1981

Eagleton, Terry. Ideology: An Introduction.  London; New York: Verso, 1991.
The book outlines the development of ideological criticism in Marxist thought from Marx to postmodern theories of ideology.  Definitions of ideology are offered and readers are shown how ideological strategies work in text, discourse, and society.
B 823.3 .E17 1991

Jobling, David and Pipin, Tina, eds.  1992.  "Ideological Criticism of Biblical Texts."  Semeia 59. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
This volume of essays comes out of a Society of Biblical Literature consultation on ideological criticism.  Articles on both Hebrew Bible and New Testament texts are included, along with a conversation with Fredric Jameson and a bibliography.
BS 410 .S45 1992

Mosala, Itumeleng J. Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology in South Africa.  Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1989.
BT 82.7 .M67 1989

Myers, Ched.  Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark's Story of Jesus.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988.
Myer uses liberation hermeneutics and Marxist theories to re-read Mark.  He has certain liberal, church-political concerns in mind as he reads through Mark in commentary form. For him ideology is synonymous with theology. Book cover image from Barnes and Noble.
BS 2585.2 .M9 1988

Sternberg, Meir.  The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
Sternberg's literary analysis of the Hebrew Bible is based on narratological models of time, repetition, point of view, characterization, and so on.  His view of the Bible is that it is "ideologically singular."  Good background reading for students of the New Testament.
BS535 .S725 1985

Warrior, Robert Allen.  "Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians: Deliverance, Conquest, and Liberation Theology Today."  Christianity and Crisis 49: 261-65.
Warrior offers a Native American reading of the Exodus and Conquest narratives and reveals that texts that are liberating for some groups can be oppressive narratives for others.  Warrior critiques Gottwald's liberation reading.  For Native Americans the traditional reading of these texts for concepts of liberation, land, and God taking sides is problematic.
BR 1 .C6417 v.49