Bloom says, "The KJB is an English Protestant polemic against contemporary Catholic and ancient Jew alike" (page 22). Later, he says, "The KJB translators, like their forerunners Tyndale and the men of the Geneva Bible, sought to appropriate the Hebrew text for a Protestant Christ" (page 22).
In light of the strong Protestant polemic in the KJB, what does Bloom hope to achieve by advancing his literary appreciation of the KJB? Literature at its best, Bloom claims, "represents the fullness of life and can give more life" (page 23). Thus by appreciating the KJB as literature, Bloom hopes to show that even though the KJB was deliberately constructed as a Protestant polemic, the literary dimension of the KJB-as-literature transcends, as it were, the original polemical orientation of the translators. As a result, both readers who have religious faith and readers who do not should be interested in reading Bloom's appreciation of the KJB if they themselves are in quest of Blessing, understood as more life. To be sure, readers in quest of more life can probably satisfy their quest by reading the KJB; it is the work of literature that can provide more life. But the gifted literary critic can aid readers who are in quest of more life by writing appreciations of works of literature that can provide more life, as Bloom does in his appreciation of the KJB.
The attentive reader should note here how our clever literary critic who claims that he has lost his trust in God has borrowed the patently religious idea of Blessing from the Hebrew Bible and has then attributed Blessing to all serious works of literature and has then designated the Hebrew Bible and the KJB as literature capable of Blessing, even for those among us who have lost their trust in God, as Bloom has.
Bloom's other new book in 2011 is titled THE ANATOMY OF INFLUENCE: LITERATURE AS A WAY OF LIFE (Yale University Press, 2011). So for Bloom reading literature and talking about literature and writing about literature is a way of life.
In any event, I have no serious quarrel with the idea that reading the KJB can be a source of Blessing. As a matter of fact, I am allowing that reading Bloom's literary appreciation of the KJB can be a source of Blessing. Which is why I am encouraging religious Jews and Christians to read his book.
But here are my questions: (1) Will Bloom's literary appreciation of the KJB be read and appreciated mostly by elite secularist academics, or will it perhaps also be read and appreciated by people of religious faith, religious Jews and Christians, especially by people of religious faith who see themselves as being at the bottom of American culture today? (2) If a significant number of people of religious faith who see themselves as being at the bottom of American culture today were to read and appreciate Bloom's book, would their appreciation of his book help advance bottom-up change in the United States today?
To spell out the obvious, I should stipulate here that two identifiable groups are not likely to appreciate Bloom's book: (1) secularist academics who have a strong anti-religion bias and (2) fundamentalist Protestants who cling to what they consider to be the literal interpretation of the Bible.
However, just as it is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time, so too it is possible for people of religious faith to hold on to their religious faith and appreciate Bloom's book at the same time.
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