People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture - Paperback

by David Lyle Jeffrey (Author)

This astute and challenging work by David Lyle Jeffrey seeks to characterize illustratively the historic commitment of Christianity to the literacy and literature of Western culture.

Against postmodernist tendencies to divide 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 here offers a fresh and generous look 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 serves to enrich and fortify the story it tells.

Back Jacket

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.

Author Biography

David Lyle Jeffrey is Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, and an eminent authority on the Bible, art, and culture. His previous books include People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture.