Paul C. Gutjahr | Oxford University Press | 2018
Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern
The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in America, edited by Paul C. Gutjahr, is an invaluable resource on the reception of the world’s best-seller in the United States. As the editor writes:
It is difficult, if not impossible, to dispute the claim that the Bible holds the place as the single most influential book in America’s history. So influential has been the Bible that early Americans denominated themselves as “People of the Book.” They saw themselves as inseparably tied to the Bible. Even today, it is estimated that the Bible remains the most owned, if not read, book in the United States. Some 88 percent of American households report owning at least one Bible.
In 42 essays, the work examines different aspects of the Bible and how it has been translated, designed, produced, and distributed over the course of American history. Highlights include a chapter on children’s Bibles. As contributor Russell Dalton details, throughout American history, many Christians and Jews have seen the Bible as the primary curriculum resource for children’s religious education. Bibles for children, Dalton notes, have existed since 1170 and have been published in English at least since the seventeenth century. Early American settlers brought children’s Bibles with them. Especially popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were small three- to five-inch-tall thumb Bibles. These tiny books offered short summaries of key biblical characters and events. European missionaries arriving in the Americas translated the Bible into native languages and printed collections of catechisms, primers, and excerpts of the Bible into these indigenous tongues. During the American Revolution, people on both sides of the conflict turned to the Bible to define and defend their positions and to find higher meaning in the war. Later, both sides of the Civil War also turned to the Bible for support, as Abraham Lincoln famously noted in his Second Inaugural Address. Biblical typologies and rhetorical styles have appeared throughout the American story. In The African American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America, the historian David Howard-Pitney traces prophetical social justice-oriented sermons in the writings of several African Americans, including Frederick Douglass (ca. 1818-1895), Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), Malcolm X (1925-1965), and Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968). Presidential addresses have also often cited the Bible. George W. Bush consoled the nation by quoting from Psalms 23 in his address to the nation on September 11, 2001. Barack Obama began his remarks at the memorial for the five Dallas police officers slain during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2016 with “Scripture tells us that in our sufferings there is glory, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Gal. 5:3-5). Though biblical literacy has waned, and legal fights over its role in law and the public square have been fraught, there is no doubt the Bible will continue to play a large role in the civic language and collective ethos of the United States. As the volume concludes:The Bible’s influence on American Education has shifted significantly since the nations’ colonial period. Once seen as central to the democratic project, the Bible is now seen as one of the chief obstacles to realizing a version of American Democracy that values diversity, equality, tolerance, and respect. Not only are religion and the Bible too often viewed as inimical to realizing true democratic equality and tolerance, but an increasingly technologically advanced and globalized world seems also to rule out the explanatory power of the Bible as a relevant curricular tool. Yet one thing remains evident: as instability in the name of religion continues to persist across the globe, American students continue to demonstrate a high degree of religious illiteracy, leading to concerns of their inability to understand current geopolitical situations which often have religious inflections. While we are less sanguine that the Bible would be particularly beneficial in helping bridge this illiteracy gap, we suggest that a less hostile, more inviting, consideration of the role of religion in public life more generally could lead to more tolerance, understanding, and respect.
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