Abstract
Norman Vance,
Bible and Novel: Narrative Authority and the Death of God
, Oxford University Press: Oxford and New York, 2013; 244 pp.: 9780199680573, £55.00/$99.00 (hbk)
This is an erudite and ambitious book which ranges widely across centuries, theologies and literatures. Its aim is to reconsider the received wisdom which suggests that the rise of the novel is associated with a corresponding loss of faith in God and in the reliability of the Bible. Taking a ‘post-secular’ approach, it asks what might be gained by considering some novels at least as re-imaginings of the religious, rather than a repudiation of all aspects of faith. It offers examples from the past, and in particular the exegetical writings of the Early Church Fathers, as models of ways to understand the authority of the Bible, situating selected novels within a similar tradition of interpreting Scripture. It then reconsiders the work of four nineteenth- and early twentieth-century novelists – George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Mary Ward and Rider Haggard, all of whom had been brought up in the Anglican Church. Vance argues that each in his or her own way takes aspects of selected biblical narratives and reappropriates them. All attempt to tell stories with a purpose, in the manner of biblical narratives, and to engage with rather than repudiate theological and exegetical thinking of their time.
Vance’s style is not always easy to follow and in the opening chapters he draws on ideas from the fields of sociology of religion, secularization, biblical interpretation across the centuries, Church history and theology. Not all readers will be familiar with all of these fields, and the pace is somewhat breathless. The conclusion of these chapters is that the novelists to be considered in greater depth were steeped in the religious controversies of their day, and these controversies were continuations of a much longer and more complex historical and theological process than is usually argued.
Each of the remaining chapters considers a wide range of work by the chosen author, and discusses their stated attitudes towards the Church of their upbringing. In each case, a distinction is made between their often clear rejection of traditional Christianity and their continuing search for God, the numinous and the common good, as well as their deep engagement with biblical narratives and tropes. While Thomas Hardy and George Eliot are well known, and their religious views have been the subject of much debate, Mary Ward and Rider Haggard are less familiar, and Vance’s exploration of their unconventional approaches to faith and the Bible are particularly to be welcomed.
Vance’s argument that these novelists all engaged in imaginative readings of the Bible may be more acceptable to most than his view that the wrestling of these writers with the profound questions of life necessarily constitutes a positive re-appropriation of religious thought. This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book, however, of importance for anyone interested in the relationship between literature and theology in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.