Table of Contents
PART ONE - FROM HAMPTON COURT TO NEW ENGLAND
CHAPTER TWO - THE ROAD TO 1611
CHAPTER THREE - THE FOUNDATION IS LAID
CHAPTER FOUR - THE KING JAMES VERSION IS COMMISSIONED
CHAPTER FIVE - THE FOUR COMPANIES
CHAPTER SIX - THE MAYFLOWER AND THE COVENANT
CHAPTER SEVEN - THE BIBLE IN THE CIVIL WARS (1642-51)
CHAPTER NINE - THE GREAT AWAKENING
PART TWO - THE IMPACTION CULTURE
CHAPTER TEN - THE ROYAL SOCIETY (1660): EARLY MODERN SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE
CHAPTER TWELVE - THE BIBLE ITSELF AS LITERATURE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - FROM SHAKESPEARE - THE BIBLE AND LITERATURE (1)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - AMERICAN LITERATURE AND THE TWENTIETH CENTURY - THE BIBLE ...
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENLIGHTENMENT
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - THE MATTER OF RICHARD DAWKINS: THE NEW ENLIGHTENMENT
SEVENTEEN - MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT AND WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
PART THREE - THE IMPACT ON SOCIETY
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - SLAVERY AND THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA (1)
CHAPTER NINETEEN - SLAVERY AND THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA (2)
CHAPTER TWENTY - THE BIBLE AND EDUCATION
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE - ON A MISSION AROUND THE WORLD
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - THE BIBLE AND SEX
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - THE BIBLE AND WOMEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM AND THE SOCIAL GOSPEL
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - THE BIBLE AND DEMOCRACY
Also by Melvyn Bragg:
Fiction For Want of a Nail The Second Inheritance The Cumbrian Trilogy: The Hired Man A Place in England Kingdom Come The Nerve Without a City Wall The Silken Net Autumn Manoeuvres Love and Glory Josh Lawton The Maid of Buttermore A Christmas Child A Time to Dance A Time to Dance: the screenplay Crystal Rooms Credo The Soldier’s Return A Son of War Crossing the Lines Remember Me
Non-fiction Speak for England Land of the Lakes Laurence Olivier Cumbria in Verse (edited) Rich: The Life of Richard Burton On Giant’s Shoulders The Adventure of English 12 Books that Changed the World In Our Time The South Bank Show: Final Cut
To the Reverend Marie-Elsa Bragg With love
PROLOGUE
In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey. She swore her oath on the King James Bible. This version of the Bible was printed in English in 1611. It was inspired by James I, who was also crowned in Westminster Abbey, 350 years before Elizabeth II. His cousin, Elizabeth I, had, on the last day of her life, indicated that he was to be her successor.
The Bible was a book which changed and moulded the English-speaking peoples. In America, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President on the King James Version as were other Presidents including George Washington, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.
This is no mere ceremonial token either in the United Kingdom or in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and elsewhere. This binding ritual signifies and honours a bond of faith and an acknowledgement of the unique reach and power of this book.
You may be a Christian. You may be anti-Christian, or of another religion, or none. You may be an atheist fundamentalist and think the Bible is monstrous, a book to be dismissed or derided.
But whoever you are in the English-speaking world, I hope to persuade