Reformations in Reading: Short Bibles and the Aesthetics of Abridgment
This article takes up a period in the Bible’s history of publication when the text was redacted to approximately half of its original size. In the mid-twentieth century, editors, publishers, and book designers worked to rebrand these shortened Bibles as works of modern literature. It considers the r...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2019
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| In: |
Journal of religion & society. Supplement
Year: 2019, Volume: 18, Pages: 119-134 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article takes up a period in the Bible’s history of publication when the text was redacted to approximately half of its original size. In the mid-twentieth century, editors, publishers, and book designers worked to rebrand these shortened Bibles as works of modern literature. It considers the rise of short Bibles, looking at the editorial choices behind the creation of The Dartmouth Bible as one prominent example of the literary and social components of textual emendation required to make the Bible “readable” in modern terms. It then compares these short Bibles to analogous abridgement projects, looking at literary abridgment in general as well as other redactions of the biblical canon. It concludes by arguing that making the Bible “readable” by removing its hermeneutic difficulties abbreviates not only the text but also the interpretive tasks this canon poses to its reader – an abbreviation that is not without its cost. |
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| ISSN: | 1941-8450 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion & society. Supplement
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