Synopses & Reviews
In this book David Lyle Jeffrey seeks to characterize illustratively the historical commitment of Christianity to the literacy and literature of Western culture. Against postmodernist tendencies to deride the historical commitment to meaning in Western art and literature as a regressive "logocentrism," Jeffrey argues that the biblical tradition-the cultural and literary identity forged among Western Christians by virtue of being a "People of the Book"-has in fact given rise to Western literacy. Jeffrey looks at the Christian "grand narrative" as it is reflected in Western literature, making apt use of the visual arts by incorporating a series of twenty-eight black-and-white illustrations that enrich and fortify the story it tells.
Synopsis
By what means can the original scriptural purpose of Word and Book be more accurately reflected in contemporary analysis? How might that purpose better inform discussion on all sides concerning the central place of the Book in Christian identity and literary culture? Perhaps, Jeffrey suggests, by recognizing that for Christian "people of the Book", at least, the proper function of the text, like the function of words themselves, is to be instrumental to human redemption, the redemption not only of personal meaning but of community meaning and, finally, of that communion with the Author that begins when the Word is taken to heart, ingested, incorporated, and made flesh in the actions of everyday life.
Synopsis
The author examines the "cultural and literary identity among Western Christians which the centrality of 'the Book' has helped to create, and the Christian use of the phrase 'People of the book.'"--Preface.
Table of Contents
Logocentrism and scriptural tradition -- Scripture upon scripture -- Secular scripture : the "beautiful captive" -- Evangelization and literacy -- The book without and the book within -- Authorial intent and the willful reader -- Symbolism of the reader -- Authentic narrative -- The Bible and the American myth -- Theory and the broken-hearted reader.