The Progressives' Bible: How Scriptural Interpretation Built a More Just America - Softcover

Claudia Setzer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 150649708X ISBN 13: 9781506497082

Publisher: Fortress Press, 2024

Synopsis

While conservative groups have often appealed to the Bible to support their positions, so too have many progressive voices rooted in the Bible, seeing their struggles in its narratives and characters, and drawing on its verses to prove the truth of their arguments. Abolitionism countered pro-slavery arguments with copious biblical material. Women's rights advocates strongly disagreed with one another about whether the Bible was good news for their cause, but some argued that it was. Temperance, a broadly inclusive reform movement in the nineteenth century, employed arguments that reflected a critical, non-literalist stance to the text. Civil rights speakers identified with biblical figures and struggles, infusing their rhetoric with familiar verses. The Progressives' Bible foregrounds women, especially women of color, like Maria Stewart, Septima Clark, and Fannie Lou Hamer, while also considering the works of crucial figures like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. A final chapter describes contemporary social justice movements that draw strength from biblical and religious traditions, from Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives.

About this title

About the Author

Claudia Setzer is a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College in Riverdale, NY. Her books include The Bible in the American Experience (co-edited with David Shefferman), The Bible and American Culture: A Sourcebook (co-edited with David Shefferman), Resurrection of the Body in Early Judaism and Early Christianity: Doctrine, Community, and Self-Definition, and Jewish Responses to Early Christians: History and Polemics, 30-150 C.E.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 150649708X
• ISBN 13: 9781506497082
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 206