Abstract
In an age shaped by pluralism, deconstruction, and narrative fragmentation, interpreting the Bible in postmodern contexts necessitates a critical re-evaluation of hermeneutical models. This paper explores how postmodern literary theory and reader-oriented hermeneutics reframe biblical interpretation, highlighting the Bible’s aesthetic depth, polyvalent meanings, and social resonance. Drawing on Reader-Response Theory by Iser and Fish and Narrative Hermeneutics by Ricoeur, the study affirms that meaning is not merely extracted from texts but co-created by readers within their cultural horizons. In this context, the Bible functions less as a closed system of doctrinal certainties and more as a dynamic literary work inviting continuous re-interpretation across shifting social realities. The paper also engages Postmodern Literary Theory by Lyotard and Derrida to demonstrate how irony, inter-textuality, and ambiguity serve as valid interpretive lenses for engaging Scripture’s poetic and prophetic genres. Through this lens, biblical texts speak prophetically into contemporary issues such as identity, justice, ecology, and marginalization. Furthermore, the fusion of biblical hermeneutics with literary arts, poetry, drama, and storytelling, restores the Bible’s activeness and communal dimensions, aligning with the postmodern critique of rigid textual control. By foregrounding imagination, empathy, and context, this study proposes a socially relevant hermeneutic that affirms the authority of Scripture while resisting reductionist or absolutist readings. In so doing, the Bible emerges not as an archaic objet d'art but as a living text that participates in public discourse, offering transformative insight in postmodern societies that are marked by skepticism and fluidity. This interpretive approach holds implications for theological education, preaching, and faith-based activism in a fragmented yet interconnected world.