Deseree Stukes ([email protected])
Mon, 19 Oct 1998 11:21:53 -0400
Feature Gnashing of Teeth Over Britain's New Bible Series
Reuters
18-OCT-98
LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - In the beginning was the Word, the Bible
says. But lo, a Scottish publisher has added a few lines and, behold, he
is in hot water with the faithful.
Some of Britain's Christian bookstores are boycotting a new series of 12
books of the authorised King James Bible, published individually as
pocket-sized paperbacks, because they contain rather unorthodox
introductions.
Jesus, for example, is described as "pushy" by writer Blake Morrison in
an introduction to St John's gospel. God is a "frivolous trickster,"
says best-selling author Louis de Bernieres in his preface to the Book
of Job.
"Blasphemy!" charge the Christian critics.
"Nonsense!" says publisher Canongate Books of Edinburgh, which sought
out 12 well known people-- including a Jew, a Buddhist and several
apparent atheists-- to write the prefaces to its Pocket Canons.
"The Christian fundamentalists don't own the Bible," huffed Claire
Paterson, commissioning editor for Canongate.
"We're trying to reach people who wouldn't normally read the Bible," she
said. "It's one of the greatest, possibly the greatest book in English
literature, and it's very daunting and alienating to many people."
Breaking up the Bible into books makes it more accessible, Paterson
said. Paul Slennett, a Christian bookseller from Essex, said he agreed
and was ready to stock the Pocket Canons until he read the
introductions.
"There's blasphemy in certain instances," Slennett said. "No Christian
could agree to the description of Louis de Bernieres's God."
After calling God a "frivolous trickster" for His treatment of the
long-suffering Job, de Bernieres goes on to say:
"There are many episodes in the Bible that show God in a very bad
light...and one cannot but conclude from them either that God is a mad,
bloodthirsty and capricious despot, or that all this time we have been
inadvertently worshipping the Devil."
Morrison writes in his preface to St John's gospel that "far from being
meek and mild, Jesus here is self-assured, pushy and somewhat
dislikeable."
In her introduction to St Paul's letters to the Corinthians, author Fay
Weldon complains that the apostle takes up "an annoyingly large chunk of
the Bible" with his writings.
And author Will Self says the Book of Revelation is a "sick text,"
adding: "I never wanted to read it again."
Slennett said he cannot understand why such criticism would be offered
as a preface.
"One hopes the reader will get beyond the introductions, but if Will
Self says he doesn't want to read it, then the reader might think, why
should I?" Slennett asked.
PROTEST CAMPAIGN
He says he is writing to 18,500 ministers of various Christian
denominations suggesting they complain to Canongate's managing director,
Jamie Byng, and ask him to withdraw the series.
Slennett is also seeking to get the Scottish Bible Board to revoke
Canongate's licence to publish the authorised King James version of the
Bible.
The board has already has received a number of letters about the Pocket
Canons, said its clerk, Andrew Kerr. But he said the board's function is
to preserve the integrity of the Bible text only-- making revocation of
Canongate's licence seem unlikely.
Canongate is not worried, and the publisher is going ahead with plans to
publish another 12 books of the Bible with more introductions. In the
next series, Psalms will be introduced by Bono, the lead singer of the
Irish rock group U2.
Paterson said the critics had overlooked the fact that all the writers
who penned introductions had one thing in common: "a love of the King
James Bible."
She noted that novelist Doris Lessing had said in her introduction to
Ecclesiastes that "We are very much the poorer because the Bible is no
longer a book to be found in every home, and heard every week."
The introduction to St Luke's gospel is written by a card-carrying
Christian, the Bishop of Edinburgh. And songwriter Nick Cave wrote that
the Christ who emerges from St Mark's gospel "had a ringing intensity
about Him that I could not resist."
Writer A.N. Wilson says of St Matthew's gospel: "You are holding in your
hands a tiny book which has changed more human lives than the Communist
Manifesto or Freud's Interpretation of Dreams: a book which has shaped
whole civilisations."
Should the controversy over the Pocket Canons die down, another may be
on the way: a comic-strip Bible is due to hit the bookshelves in Britain
at the end of this month.
deseree
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