BiblicalInsights.net

Paul Gutjahr has written a history of the English Bible in America from 1777 to 1880.  Gutjahr reveals insights into the status of the Bible in America from the time of the Revolutionary War unto the end of the nineteenth century covering a period of a little more than one hundred years.  In the Preface to the book, he identifies some of the reasons for the diminishing influence of the Bible in America.  Consider the following quote: “As the nineteenth century unfolded, radical changes in printing technology, educational practices, reading tastes, transportation networks, labor relations, demographics, political institutions, and religious traditions combined to erode the Bible’s “classic preeminence” (2).  Gutjahr goes on to say, “This study argues that the reasons for the diminishing role of the Bible in American print culture are largely founded and revealed in the evolving content and packaging of the Holy Scriptures.  The Bible’s myriad mutations played an enormous, and hitherto almost entirely ignored, role in determining the Bible’s place in American hearts and minds” (3).  By 1880, nearly two thousand different editions of the Bible were available to Americans (3).  The multiplication of the Bible in America was designed to keep it the most read, most revered book, but it may have had just the opposite effect.  It divided loyalties between various versions and texts which caused competition, confusion and disillusionment with the “unchangeable” nature of the Bible.  Gutjahr mentions the impact of higher criticism and textual criticism on the translation and multiplication of the versions of the Bible.  These two influences changed the nature of the Bible from the view that the Bible was a divine document to the view that it was both a human and divine document (2).  Higher critics attempted to separate the divine from the human.  Textual critics changed the basic Greek text from which the English translations were formed.  The result was the loss of a single unifying Bible that helped define American culture.  Gutjahr also mentions the influence of men like Thomas Paine who attacked the Bible.  Paine’s works were very popular in America and helped erode confidence in the Bible.  Paine represents the influence of secular humanism in America.  The role of the Bible in American culture changed and diminished.  Today, the Bible is no longer the basis for values and morals in American culture.  The Bible has been marginalized and excluded from the public sphere and relegated primarily to individual homes and churches.  The Bible has become one book among many instead of The Book.  I have written a review of Gutjahr’s book and placed it on my Book Reviews page.  Please take the time to read it and tell others about it.