The Reforming Power of the Scriptures: A Biography of the English Bible

. with dustjacket, 1996 clean bright copy

In nontechnical, easily understood prose, Trammell, an associate editor of Christian Science magazine, and Dawley, the managing editor of the Herald of Christian Science, tell the story of the English Bible. They begin with the history of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament and the place of the Scriptures in Christianity from the Middle Ages to the present, depicting the writing, preserving, and translating of the biblical writings as inextricably intertwined in the history of the people of God. Their presentation reflects the results of current mainline scholarship. Not surprisingly, the story of the King James Version occupies three chapters, while the development from that time to this is covered in a mere nine pages. On the whole, this is a well-written, competent overview, but it should be supplemented by more in-depth (and, occasionally, more accurate) works such as F.F. Bruce's The History of the Bible in English (1978. 3d ed.).?Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama Lib., Birmingham
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