Abstract
The fourth and final volume in the New Cambridge History of the Bible series is rich, informative, and comprehensive. It boasts an impressive list of contributors: many world-class scholars who are steeped in the subject of their chapter and who represent a wide range of opinions in terms of their geographical setting and confessional and theoretical starting points.
The volume is acute and satisfying in its structure. The editor, John Riches, guides the reader carefully with a short Preface, setting the volume in its context in the series, and with an Introduction and Conclusion. The widening of the scope of the final volume in the new series, to encompass the world outside of the “western Church”, as well as within it, is thoroughly justified and achieved.
Part 1 covers the means of producing the biblical text, from the text-critical advances of the period, to the impact of technological and economic changes on the production and distribution of the Bible, and the often under-recognised work of those who have translated the Bible and made it accessible to new audiences. In Part 2, theological and historical interpretations of the period are charted, noting in broad terms the growing interest in the role of the reader in the production of interpretation, including those from a philosophical, feminist, post-colonial and Jewish perspective. Part 3 represents this shift of interest geographically, with voices from across the world being heard in the Cambridge History of the Bible for the first time, assessing the impact of the Bible in Africa, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. In Part 4, the focus is on confessional readings of the Bible, with Orthodox and Pentecostal interpretations offered alongside those from the Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions. Inter-faith considerations are also included, all reflecting a shift in perspective for the series. The main body of the volume finishes with a new thematic section, covering the Bible in modern culture, including art, literature, politics, science, and hymnody. John Riches’ personal and perceptive conclusion highlights the contested nature of the Bible as it is translated from one language, one culture and one set of power structures into another. Riches argues that diversity across ecclesiastical, theological and geographical distances does not necessarily diminish the authority of the biblical text in the lives of readers, but in an ongoing period of change, the future of the role of the Bible in global terms may surprise us all.
As there are too many articles in the volume to cover each in detail, I will select one from each section. In Part 1, Leslie Howsam’s and Scott McLaren’s article on the production and distribution of popular editions of the Bible offers a narrative which focuses on the work and influence of the Bible Societies, particularly the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society. The interplay described between these Societies and economics, ecumenics, and world history is fascinating, and the direction of influence is at times surprising. The scope of the article extends to Gideons International and, beyond that, to the work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (the Jehovah’s Witnesses). It touches only briefly on the popular influence of online versions of the Bible, however, maintaining that “the notion of a Bible wholly divorced from paper and ink is possibly still too radical, even too Gnostic, to fully embrace” (p. 82). Perhaps the Bible and new technology would have merited a chapter on its own, and one suspects that here is an area which the next edition of the Cambridge History will not be able to ignore.
To choose one article from the nineteen offered in Part 2 of the volume is a difficult task. Generally shorter than articles in other sections, they are necessarily overviews rather than in-depth analyses of modes of studying the Bible. A model example is Jorunn Ǿkland’s article on Feminist Readings, which surveys the history of such readings by placing them in the wider context of gender studies. Working from the broad assumption that “it is epistemological changes that have made possible changes in feminist readings and inspired struggles for women’s equality and not the other way round” (p. 262), Ǿkland charts the non-linear development of feminist readings. The instability yet necessity of these readings in the broader sphere of the power structures within theology, academia, and the church is demonstrated and argued with care and conviction. As an introduction to the field, the article will be useful in many contexts.
In Part 3 the contributors are generally given more space to outline developments across wide geographical areas, although their task is a challenging one. R. S. Sugirtharajah’s article on the Bible in Asia signals its intent very clearly: to survey how the Bible is used in the multi-religious context which is and was Asia; to consider portrayals of Jesus in this context; and to demonstrate the significance of the recent emergence of minority voices including those from the Asian diaspora, and of post-colonialism. Sugirtharajah contextualises biblical controversies in terms of national struggle and the search for national identity, and offers examples of such confrontations in which the apparently silent “other” actively asserts control over those such as missionaries who have sought to impose an interpretation up them, using the hermeneutical tools of the oppressor. Key differences in emphasis between Asian and Western interpretations of the biblical text are carefully exemplified, such an emphasis on the Pauline Jesus of faith rather than on the search for the historical Jesus. The interpretations of marginalised and discriminated-against groups, such as burakumin in Japan or the dalits in India, are highlighted. The difficult negotiations and translations facing Asians living in the West, in the context of biblical studies and biblical interpretation, are discussed. Sugirtharajah concludes that the model of the marginal, contested place of the Bible in Asia offers the potential for liberation from a world dominated by the authority of sacred scripture in any culture, vital when fundamentalism is such a dangerous force. The argument is elegantly and forcefully made here.
From Part 4 I have chosen a topic unfamiliar to me, namely the use of the Bible in “new churches”, predominantly Pentecostal. Edmund J. Rybarczyk’s article addresses the scale and diversity of “pentecostalization” in global terms, and seeks to challenge the stereotypical perception that Pentecostals follow the Spirit’s leading rather than the Bible per se. Rybarczyk describes the worldview of the new churches in terms of their belief in an open universe into which a spiritual force continually intervenes; their rejection of modernist epistemology based on rationalism, and their ecclesiological adherence to the precept of the “priesthood of all believers”. In terms of a hermeneutic when approaching the Bible, this worldview plays out in a commitment to the spiritual and personal rather than historical meaning of the text, with the book of Acts as the starting and end point of understanding. It is the contemporary application of the teaching of the Bible which is generally the focus of homiletics, and Pentecostal worship further seeks to follow biblical models, with a tendency towards non-sacramentalism. Daily reading of the Bible is encouraged, with an openness to what the Spirit might be saying to the reader in the text: the focus throughout is on God as God communicates through the Bible. Rybarczyk identifies the dangers of such an approach, but suggests Pentecostalism may offer “new and invigorating means of seeing what is present in the biblical text” (p. 605). The style of this contribution is a little different from the others, offering testimony from Pentecostals from around the world with less of the usual academic apparatus than some may be used to. But this mirrors the subject of the article in a satisfying way, and offers an insight into an approach to the Bible which has often been ignored and yet is staggering in its scale.
Finally, in Part 5, Elena Volkova offers a survey of the Bible in Literature, in her contribution to the Thematic Overview of the section. The article goes far beyond what might be considered canonical texts in western literature, and takes a largely character-driven approach. The characters of Cain, Jesus, Pilate, Judas, and the Marys are all discussed, as they are reflected or referred to in literary texts. Issues of biblical narrative or plot are introduced very briefly at the end. The approach is carefully delineated and no doubt limited by space, but has a slightly episodic feel, in contrast to the narrative flow of many of the other contributions.
Although only a limited range of contributions has been covered here, key themes of the volume have been highlighted. These include issues around the status, influence and authority of the Bible in a period of cultural plurality and change; gender issues and the recovery of the voices of the marginalised generally; and the continuing but shifting role the Bible plays in the religious, cultural and political life of communities throughout the world. The volume is a valuable resource for those at any stage in their thinking about the significance of the Bible in the modern age and beyond.