Introduction

When a volume of essays has the word ‘new’ in the title the first question a reader might be expected to ask is, ‘In what sense new?’.

These essays are new in that they have been specifically commissioned and brought together for this collection. The volume also showcases the work of new researchers in the field alongside contributions from established scholars. However, neither of these factors was uppermost in our minds when we came together to discuss plans for this book. It was our sense, rather, that the interdisciplinary field known as literature and theology was in transition. We believed it was timely to mark and chart the new spaces opening up for debate by the publication of a work in which authors would be encouraged to reflect upon the changes taking place.