Cultural Interpretations: Reorienting New Testament CriticismBuilding on insights into the social functions of language, especially its interpersonal dimensions, Blount constructs a culturally sensitive model of interpretation that provides a sound basis for ethnographic and popular, as well as historical critical, readings of the biblical text. Blount's framework does more than acknowledge the inevitability of multiple interpretations; it foments them. His analysis demonstrates the social intent of every