People of the Book

This astute and challenging work by David Lyle Jeffrey seeks to characterize illustratively the historic commitment of Christianity to the literacy and literature of Western culture.<BR /><BR /> Against postmodernist tendencies to divide the historical commitment to meaning in Western art and literature as a regressive "logocentrism" Jeffrey argues that the biblical tradition — the cultural and literary identity forged among Western Christians by virtue of being a "People of the Book" — has in fact given rise to Western literacy. Jeffrey here offers a fresh and generous look at the Christian "grand narrative" as it is reflected in Western literature making apt use of the visual arts by incorporating a series of twenty-eight black-and-white illustrations that serves to enrich and fortify the story it tells.