The Oxford Handbook series is a goldmine of state-of-the-art reflection on a wide array of themes studied by scholars, which will soon include a volume on the life and thought of Edwards co-edited by Oliver Crisp, Jan Stievermann, and myself.
Paul Gutjahr is the Ruth N. Halls Professor of English at Indiana University and a specialist in the history of sacred texts in America.
And Gutjahr’s Oxford Handbook treats a wide range of topics that will interest Edwards scholars. Those of special interest to readers of this blog are tackled in chapters five and six, written by Robert E. Brown and Jan Stievermann. Brown covers “The Bible in the Seventeenth Century,” laying out the background to Edwards’ exegesis. Stievermann summarizes “Biblical Interpretation in Eighteenth-Century America,” discussing Edwards in two sections—on “The Enlightenment Bible” and “The Evangelical Bible”—and reinforcing the claim made by several recent scholars (including Stievermann himself and his student, Ryan Hoselton) that Edwards’ exegesis “stands out for its theological originality and philosophical sophistication” (p. 101).
The rest of this volume treats what Gutjahr depicts “as a . . . centuries-long interpretative rope of biblical examination. Like any rope,” he writes, “this one is made of individual cords that are woven together.” The six cords he features in the book’s introduction are 1) “textual interpretation” of the Bible in America, 2) “works concerning biblical translation,” 3) “bibliographic and textual work on the Bible,” 4) “historical work on the Bible,” 5) “cultural examinations of the Bible,” and 6) “reception studies of the Bible” (pp. xix-xxx).
Many thanks to Gutjahr and company for this fascinating handbook on the study of the Bible and the power of such study in shaping United States history and religion.
Here is the book’s table of contents:
Introduction
Paul C. Gutjahr
Part I: Bible Production
1. Protestant English-Language Bible Publishing and Translation
Paul C. Gutjahr
2. American Children’s Bibles
Russell W. Dalton
3. Native American Bible Translations
Linford D. Fisher
4. Bible Bindings and Formats
Seth Perry
Part II: Biblical Interpretation and Usage
5. Seventeenth-Century Biblical Interpretation
Robert E. Brown
6. Eighteenth-Century Biblical Interpretation
Jan Stievermann
7. Nineteenth-Century Biblical Interpretation
Mark Noll
8. Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Biblical Interpretation
Daniel J. Treier and Craig Hefner
9. The Bible in the Electronic Age
John B. Weaver
10. The Bible and Feminist Interpretation
Claudia Setzer
11. The Bible and American LGBT Interpretation
Teresa J. Hornsby
12. The Bible and African American Culture
Abraham Smith
13. The Bible and Creationism
Susan L. Trollinger and William Vance Trollinger, Jr.
14. The King James Only Movement
Jason A. Hentschel
15. The Bible and the Sermonic Tradition
Dawn Coleman
Part III: The Bible in American History and Culture
16. The Bible and American Education
Suzanne Rosenblith and Patrick Womac
17. The Bible in American Law
Daniel L. Dreisbach
18. The Bible in American Politics
Daniel A. Morris
19. The Bible and Slavery
Emerson Powery
20. The Bible and Sports
Jeffrey Scholes
21. The Bible and the Military
Ed Waggoner
22. The Bible and the Founding of the Nation
Eran Shalev
23. The Bible in the Civil War
Paul Harvey
24. The Bible and the Religious Right
Rebecca Barrett-Fox
25. The Bible and Environmentalism
Calvin B. DeWitt
Part IV: The Bible and the Arts
26. The Bible and Art
Kristin Schwain
27. English Cinema and tThe Bible and Cinema
William D. Romanowski
28. The Bible and Literature
Shira Wolosky
29. The Bible and Graphic Novels and Comic Books
Andrew T. Coates
30. The Bible and Music
Jason C. Bivins
31. Performing the Bible
James S. Bielo
Part V: The Bible and Religious Traditions
32. The Bible and Judaism
Jonathan D. Sarna
33. The Bible and Catholicism
Donald Senior
34. The Bible and Orthodox Christians
A. G. Roeber
35. The Bible and the Mainline Denominations
Elesha Coffman
36. The Bible and Evangelicalism
John G. Stackhouse, Jr.
37. The Bible and Fundamentalism
Randall J. Stephens
38. The Bible and Pentecostalism
Michael J. McClymond
39. The Bible and Mormonism
David Holland
40. The Bible and Seventh-Day Adventists
Nicholas Miller
41. The Bible and Jehovah’s Witnesses
Michael J. Gilmour
42. The Bible and Christian Scientists
Michael W. Hamilton