The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously
Cambridge University Press, 11/24/2005
EAN 9780521853149, ISBN10: 0521853141
Hardcover, 232 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
In The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously, Jacques Berlinerblau explores the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, though an explicitly critical and secular perspective, reviewing how it has been interpreted from antiquity to today and how these interpretations impact our current political debates. In separate chapters, he looks at how the Bible continues to be invoked in disputes about Jewish identity, intermarriage, and about homosexuality - offering secular readers background and ideas for joining conversations about scripture. Finally, he suggests ways in which secularists in all countries need to pose such questions about all sacred texts and religious phenomena. Cumulatively, the book is a first attempt to re-invigorate a once-estimable secular, intellectual tradition.
Introduction
secularists and the not-Godless world
Part I. The Composition of the Hebrew Bible
1. Who wrote the Bible? (Ancient response)
2. Who wrote the Bible? (Modern response)
3. The secular answer to 'who wrote the Bible?'
Part II. The Interpreters of the Hebrew Bible
4. Why is there so much biblical interpretation?
5. Introducing biblical scholars and secular interpretations
Part III. Politics and Scripture
6. On Jewish intermarriage
the Bible is open to interpretation
7. Same-sex eroticism and Jerry Falwell
8. The secular Qur'an?
Conclusion
beyond church and state
new directions for secularism.