Reading a book such as this in its entirety is a rare pleasure. Its forty articles are written by leading scholars in their fields, or give voices to budding and innovative researchers. Together, they explore the universe that was the Bible in early modern England. This short review can hardly do justice to the breadth of scholarship embedded in its eight hundred pages. This is especially the case as each article is quite independent in scope and methodology, with the editors’ hands felt in short and useful introductions to each section, as well as in cross references between articles on common themes.
The book is divided to six sections, which engage with different facets of the early modern Bible: ‘Translation’ introduces the landmarks of the early modern English Bible, from Tyndale, through the Geneva Bible to the King James Version. It examines creation, reception and early criticism of style and language; ‘Scholarship’ explores attempts to wrestle with problems stemming from the complexities and ‘idiosyncrasies ‘inherent in the Bible itself. It shows how early modern scholars engaged with difficult texts either by deeming books as apocryphal, or by employing a variety of exegetical techniques (many drawn from the medieval Schools); they also had to accommodate discrepancies between biblical narratives and current geographical knowledge, or to harmonise conflicting chronologies; ‘Spreading the Word’ focuses on preaching and the use of Bibles in public worship. It goes beyond England to look at the dissemination and translation of Bibles in Scotland, Ireland and the New World. The editors should be commended for this inclusion, which, although not strictly within the remits of the book, sheds important light on Bibles on the fringes, or under the influence, of England; ‘The political Bible’ shows how the Bible was employed by monarchs, political thinkers or radical movements. It presents the ascent of James vi/i, the Civil War and the Glorious Revolution through a biblical prism, and adds to our understanding of the debates surrounding civil obedience and regicide; ‘The Bible and literature’ investigates both the King James Bible as literature, and literary uses of the Bible. The articles by Hamlin and Wilcox, commendably, corroborate one another, as one positions the KJV within contemporary literature and the other explores it on its own account. Other articles engage with the works of Hutchinson, Herbert, Bunyan, Milton and with sacred tragedies; ‘Reception histories’, the final section, serves as a variorum in bringing together works on material culture, emotions or literary criticism and reception. The articles by Rhatigan and Morrall are most revealing in their exploration of second- and third-level reception. Rather than merely addressing the reception of the biblical text, they demonstrate how biblical commentaries, glosses and paratextual elements were employed by preachers, artists, lay women and men. This adds a new dimension to arguments regarding the annotations of the Geneva Bible, which are explored in the essays by Molekamp, Edwards and Shuger.
As a whole this book provides a more nuanced and better grounded understanding of cultural and religious transformations in early modern England. The links between England and the Continent, a topic not fully explored in many studies of early modern England, are amply substantiated. This is evident in numerous articles which explore the English reliance on importing anything from Bibles, biblical and extra-biblical texts and printing techniques, to woodblocks, fireplace tiles, pilgrim accounts or chronologies, evident throughout the period. The essays also break away from common misconceptions on the Reformation. They demonstrate how elements long associated with Catholicism and the Middle Ages, such as the centrality of Latin (Ferguson, Ferrell, Leo), religious iconography (Morrall) or religious drama (Leo), were pivotal to leading Reformers, both in England and abroad.
On the dust-jacket the book is described as ‘The first comprehensive study of the English Bible across the two centuries following the Reformation’. This book is, of course, anything but a comprehensive study. Nor should it be. It is a collection of short (about thirteen-page) essays, some engaging with a single year or text, others spanning centuries. There is inevitable repetition and the idiosyncrasies of articles written in isolation from one another (mitigated in part by the editors’ cross-references). Some areas are left lacking: the sections on politics and literature engage solely with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; liturgy and visual images are little explored; no attention is given to the little-known first Bible to be printed in England. The chronology and index are useful, although a separate biblical index would have been valuable for many readers interested in the reception history of the Bible. However, the book's eclecticism is actually one of its major strengths. It captures the liveliness and peculiarity of the Bible in early modern England in a way that no ‘comprehensive study’ would had been able to do. No single narrative can describe the various manifestations that embodied the early modern Bible. Rather, the range of articles which treat the Bible through the prisms of text and translation, of tangible books, of literature and worship, or as models of authority, are a just testimony to the Bible in early modern England. This book will be of great value to students of early modern England, whether they are interested in literature, material culture, book history, politics or church history.
