The Power Of Religious Prose
THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS PROSE
The prose of the King James Bible had the power to move and convert, and exercised a powerful hold over the mental world of generations of English-speaking people. In his journal entry for Sunday February 20, 1763, James Boswell (1740–95)—the celebrated biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson—wrote of the impact of the Old Testament story of Joseph:
This forenoon I read the history of Joseph and his brethren, which melted my heart and drew tears from my eyes. It is simply and beautifully told in the sacred writings. It is a strange thing that the Bible is so little read. I am reading it regularly through at present. I dare say that there are many people of distinction in London who know nothing about it. Were the history of Joseph published by some genteel bookseller as an eastern fragment and circulated amongst the gay world, I am persuaded that those who have any genuine taste might be taken in to admire it exceedingly and so by degrees have a due value for the oracles of God.
Boswell clearly took the view that a literary appreciation of the Bible would lead to a recognition of its religious merits.
Similar themes can be found in American writings of the same period. Timothy Dwight's 1772 work A Dissertation on the History, Eloquence and Poetry of the Bible can be seen as a strident affirmation of the literary value of the King James Bible, and an important anticipation of later attitudes toward the text. Samuel Jackson Pratt's The Sublime and Beautiful of Scripture, which dates from the same period, made some similar points:
I am thus particularly earnest to display in this work the literary excellence of the Holy Bible, because I have reason to apprehend it is too frequently laid by under a notion of its being a dull, dry and unentertaining system, whereas the fact is quite otherwise: it contains all that can be wished by the truest intellectual taste, it enters more sagaciously and more deeply into human nature, it develops character, delineates manner, charms the imagination and warms the heart more effectively than any other book extant; and if once a man would take it into his hand without that strange prejudicing idea of flatness, and be willing to be pleased, I am morally certain he would find all his favorite authors dwindle in the comparison, and conclude that he was not only reading the most religious book but the most entertaining book in the world.
In part, the immense influence of the King James Bible lay in the fact that it was the only biblical translation known by a culture that was generally well disposed toward the public and private reading of the Bible. The inescapability of the language and imagery of the King James Bible led to them being incorporated into the language and literature of the English-speaking peoples. The great English art critic and cultural historian John Ruskin (1819–1900) made it clear that his own work had been immeasurably shaped by the prose of the Bible, which he had absorbed deeply:
From Walter Scott's novels I might easily, as I grew older, have fallen to other people's novels; and Pope might, perhaps, have led me to take Johnson's English, or Gibbon's, as types of language; but, once knowing the 32nd of Deuteronomy, the 15th of First Corinthians, the Sermon on the Mount, and most of the Apocalypse, every syllable by heart, and having always a way of thinking with myself what words meant, it was not possible for me, even in the foolishest times of youth, to write entirely superficial or formal English.
Ruskin saw the language of the King James Bible as a major influence on his own style. Other writers of this period could easily bear witness to the same point.
This Bible conveyed religious teachings using language that inspired its readers to meditation and worship, rather than dulling them by the wooden communication of doctrines and demands. Iris Murdoch made this point when she spoke of the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer (1662) as
… great pieces of literary good fortune, when language and spirit conjoined to produce a high unique religious eloquence. These books have been loved because of their inspired linguistic perfection. Treasured words encourage, console, and save.
For Murdoch, the religious themes of the Bible need not have been phrased in such an eloquent and enriching way. The glory of the King James Bible was that the English language was raised to new heights by being put to the service of this supreme goal—the rendering in English of the words and deeds of God.