Bible culture and authority in the early United States / Seth Perry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Perry, Seth, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible--Evidences, authority, etc.

Bible.

Christianity and culture--United States.

Christianity and culture.

United States.

United States--Church history--18th century.

Church history.

United States--Church history--19th century.

Physical Description:

xv, 195 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Summary:

Early Americans claimed that they looked to "the Bible alone" for authority, but the Bible was never, ever alone. Bible Culture and Authority in the Early United States is a wide-ranging exploration of the place of the Christian Bible in America in the decades after the Revolution. Attending to both theoretical concerns about the nature of scriptures and to the precise historical circumstances of a formative period in American history, Seth Perry argues that the Bible was not a "source" of authority in early America, as is often said, but rather a site of authority: a cultural space for editors, commentators, publishers, preachers, and readers to cultivate authoritative relationships. While paying careful attention to early national bibles as material objects, Perry shows that "the Bible" is both a text and a set of relationships sustained by a universe of cultural practices and assumptions. Moreover, he demonstrates that Bible culture underwent rapid and fundamental changes in the early nineteenth century as a result of developments in technology, politics, and religious life. At the heart of the book are typical Bible readers, otherwise unknown today, and better-known figures such as Zilpha Elaw, Joseph Smith, Denmark Vesey, and Ellen White, a group that includes men and women, enslaved and free, Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists, Mormons, Presbyterians, and Quakers. What they shared were practices of biblical citation in writing, speech, and the performance of their daily lives. While such citation contributed to the Bible's authority, it also meant that the meaning of the Bible constantly evolved as Americans applied it to new circumstances and identities.

Contents:

Part I Print-Bible Culture in The Early United States 17

Chapter 1 Creating the American Bible Reader, 1777-1816 19

Chapter 3 Taking a Text: Reading and Referencing the Bible in the Early Nineteenth Century 40

Part II Beyond Bibles 63

Chapter 3 Joshua, When the Walls Fell: Biblical Roles in Changing Times 65

Chapter 4 "Write These Things in a Book": Scripturalization and Visionary Authority 86

Chapter 5 The Many Bibles of Joseph Smith: Scripturalization in Early National America 110.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0691179131

9780691179131

OCLC:

1004939295