The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously

by Jacques Berlinerblau

• ISBN13: 9780521618243
• ISBN10: 052161824X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-05
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Jacques Berlinerblau is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Languages at Hofstra University and Visiting Professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University.

Table of Contents

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.