postmoderns raise for historical critics is whether, in exorcising the spirit of faith from biblical studies, they have not inadvertently admitted even more ideological demons into the academic house. Whereas the temptation of historical criticism is to offer only thin descriptions of the world behind the text or of the process of the text’s composition, the temptation of ideological criticism is to offer only thinly veiled echoes of one’s own voice. To be distracted by what is “behind” or “before”