The Bible for Children; From the Age of Gutenberg to the Present

by Ruth B. Bottigheimer

• ISBN13: 9780300064889
• ISBN10: 0300064888
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2009-04-24
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

For more than five centuries, parents, teachers, and preachers in Europe and America have written and illustrated Bibles especially for children. These children's Bibles vary widely, featuring different stories, various interpretations, and markedly divergent illustrations, despite their common source. How children's Bibles differ, and why, is the subject of this ground-breaking book, the first to recognize children's Bibles as a distinct genre with its own literary, historical, and cultural significance.

Author Biography

Ruth B. Bottigheimer is adjunct associate professor in the department of comparative studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Children's Bibles in Context: Devotional and Religious Literature for Children	p. 3
Early Models for Children's Bibles: Peter Comestor and the Historia Scholastica and Martin Luther and the Passional	p. 14
The Bible for Children in Europe and America: Germany, France, England, the United States, Switzerland, South of the Alps and the Pyrenees, Russia	p. 38
The Character of God	p. 59
Parents and Children: Abraham and Isaac, David and Absalom, Lot and His Daughters	p. 70
The Injunction to Work: Children's Bibles and Class Difference	p. 91
The Demon Drink: Noah after the Ark	p. 103
Sex and the Fathers: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, David and Bathsheba, the Rape of Dinah, the Rape and Murder of the Levite's Wife	p. 116
Philogyny, Misogyny, and Erasure: Jael and Sisera	p. 142
The Tower of Babel	p. 152
The Miraculous: Parting the Red Sea and Changing Water into Wine	p. 162
The Crucifixion	p. 180
Falls from Grace: Adam and Eve in the Garden and Returns to the Canon	p. 197
Epilogue: Bible Stories and Storytelling	p. 217
Appendix	p. 219
Notes	p. 223
Works Cited	p. 277
Index	p. 329
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