The Bible and the People

In this slow-to-get-going but ultimately engaging text, Ferrell, a professor of early modern history and literature at Claremont Graduate University in California, tours the history of the Bible as it has been copied, translated, annotated, dressed up and every which way adapted to changing times for English-speaking readers. From the Latin Vulgate Bible to the contemporary Revolve and Refuel Bible-zines for teens, the Bible has remained an object of central importance and more, or less, availability to Christians. Bible translation into the vernacular, whatever the vernacular, has been a way of establishing authority. Ferrell rightly recognizes this text's crucial place in the evolution of Anglo-American Christianity and in the hearts of Christians. (Dec.)