John Riches - The New Cambridge History of the Bible, Volume 4 : From 1750 to the Present

The political, technological and cultural upheaval of the past two and a half centuries has dramatically altered how we read and understand the Bible. This volume examines the Bibles role in the modern world beginning with a treatment of its production and distribution that discusses publishers, printers, text critics and translators and continuing with a presentation of new methods of studying the text that have emerged, including historical, literary, social-scientific, feminist, post-colonial, liberal and fundamentalist readings. There is a full discussion of the changes in understandings of and approaches to the Bible in various faith communities. The dissemination of the Bible throughout the globe has also produced a host of new interpretations, and this volume provides a comprehensive geographical survey of its reception. In the final chapters the authors offer a thematic overview of the Bible in relation to literature, art, film, science and other disciplines. They demonstrate that, in spite of challenges to the Bibles authority in western Europe, it remains highly relevant and influential, not least in the Americas, Africa and Asia.

JOHN RICHES is Emeritus Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow. His publications include The Bible: A Very Short Introduction (2000); Conflicting Mythologies: Identity Formation in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew (2000); and Galatians through the Centuries (2008).

The New Cambridge History of the Bible series comprises four volumes which take into account the considerable advances in scholarship made in almost all biblical disciplines during the previous forty years. The volumes respond to shifts in scholarly methods of study of the Old and New Testaments, look closely at specialised forms of interpretation and address the new concerns of the twenty-first century. Attention is paid to biblical studies in Eastern Christian, Jewish and Islamic contexts, rendering the series of interest to students of all Abrahamic faiths. The entire New Cambridge History of the Bible offers a comprehensive account of the development of the Bible from its beginnings to the present day, but each volume can also be read independently, providing a substantial contribution to the scholarship of the period it covers. The New History will provide an invaluable resource for scholars, researchers and students alike.

For a list of titles published in the series, please see .

From 1750 to the Present

Edited by

John Riches

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Cambridge University Press 2015

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2015

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data

(Revised for volume 4)

Main entry under title:

The New Cambridge history of the Bible / edited by Richard Marsden and E. Ann Matter.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-521-86006-2 (hardback)

1. Bible History. 2. Bible Use History. 3. Bible Criticism, interpretation, etc. History.

I. Marsden, Richard. II. Matter, E. Ann.

BS445.N49 2012

220.9dc23 2012002200

ISBN 978-0-521-85823-6 Hardback

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