The Progressives' Bible: How Scriptural Interpretation Built a More Just America
Claudia Setzer
May 2024 · Fortress Press
Ebook
206
Pages
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
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 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.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
