Rating: 3/5

The other day, listening to the OnScript podcast, I listened to professor Iain Provan explain how to transition from a literal interpretation of the Bible to one one that literarily looks at the Bible. I wondered what this could mean?

Thankfully, scripture and the poetic imagination opens the door to answering that question but in reverse.  As David Lyle Jeffrey puts it, the book’s purpose is to “explore some of the ways Holy Scripture has shaped the English poetic imagination…” (p. xii).  Starting with Caedmon and walking us through Dante, Chaucer and others, we examine the influence of scripture throughout the world of English literature.  The implications are profound: “God does not talk like a lawyer, philosopher, or even a theologian… Very often… he speaks like a poet” (p. 10).

The experience is transformative.  Understanding the Bible itself as literature can move us away from that myopic way in which a “literal” reading removes the imagination itself from scripture.  And through reverse osmosis, Jeffrey shows us that in fact, the original poet is God himself—perhaps all of the Bible (much like poetry) deserves a keen eye toward its refreshing form, synthesis and arrangement.

Jeffrey, of course, has a different project in mind. He opens up the world of literature to readings that may be forgotten or cast aside in modernity. Those readings root themselves in the Bible.

Yet, we do get lost in the project as a whole.  The book is arranged as a series of somewhat discursively placed essays that open windows into discrete biblical passages and authors and it’s possible to miss the global view of Jeffrey’s thesis. This book might be better suited for the classroom than for casual reading. His Epilogue brings us back and is a beautiful lament on the diminishing Biblical literacy of students, teachers and literary critics. We are missing out on the truth of literature when we become so estranged from its scriptural roots and for this, I admire Jeffrey’s work.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baker Academic
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 16, 2019