Postmodernity and Interpretation

"By its very nature, postmodernism defies classification and definition, but surely one of the characteristics of our postmodern age is our awareness that acts of interpretation are by their very nature efforts to constrain meaning. Critical study, whatever shape it might take, shares and interest in articulating and deploying canons for adjudicating among various and competing readings of the same text. Why do we prefer this reading over that one? What reasons can we muster to support this interpretation or exclude that one? Another prominent feature of our current situation would be not only the presence of multiple interests but our recognition of the multiple interests that shape our interpretive agenda and influence the interpretive boundaries we draw and/or are willing to allow."

Joel B. Green, "Reading Luke," in Methods for Luke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 3.