The Pluralization of Scripture in Early American Protestantism: Competing Bible Translations and the Debate over Universal Salvation, ca. 1700–1780

IF 0.3 3区 哲学 Q2 HISTORY
J. Stievermann, Benjamin Pietrenka
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

ABSRACT This article addresses a pervasive historiographic assumption about the supremacy of the King James Bible in British North America by proposing that a process we call the “pluralization of Scriptures” forced colonial Protestants to square their belief in “the Bible” with the undeniable reality of many “bibles.” While the KJV remained dominant among anglophone Protestant populations, by the early eighteenth century some heirs of New England Puritanism were challenging its adequacy and pushing for improved translations of key passages, as members of the clerical intelligentsia became immersed in cutting-edge textual and historical scholarship. Also, during the eighteenth century, non-English cultures of biblicism with their own religious print markets formed in the middle colonies, most importantly among diasporic communities of German Protestants, who brought the Luther Bible to America, and diverse “heterodox” Bibles associated with radical Pietist groups. This essay contends that, well before the American Revolution, the advent of Higher Criticism in American seminaries, and the first wave of English-language Bible production in the early republic, Scripture had ceased to be a static, monolithic entity. A considerable number of alternative translations and commentary traditions in a variety of different languages came to co-exist and, at some points, also interact with each other. Moreover, we argue that competing translations, even of passages speaking to core Christian doctrines, were inextricably bound up with some of the most significant controversies among colonial Protestants, such as the debate over the doctrine of universal salvation, our main case study.
早期美国新教中圣经的多元化:圣经翻译的竞争和关于普遍拯救的争论,约1700–1780年
ABSRACT这篇文章通过提出一个我们称之为“圣经多元化”的过程,迫使殖民地新教徒将他们对“圣经”的信仰与许多“圣经”不可否认的现实相一致,来解决关于詹姆斯国王圣经在英属北美洲至高无上的普遍历史假设。“虽然KJV在英语新教徒中仍然占主导地位,但到了18世纪初,新英格兰清教主义的一些继承人正在挑战它的充分性,并推动改进关键段落的翻译,因为神职知识界的成员开始沉浸在尖端的文本和历史学术中。此外,在十八世纪,具有自己宗教印刷市场的非英国圣经文化在中间殖民地形成,最重要的是在德国新教徒的流散社区中形成,他们将路德圣经带到了美国,以及与激进的虔诚派团体有关联的各种“异端”圣经。这篇文章认为,早在美国革命、美国神学院高等批评的出现以及共和国早期英语圣经生产的第一波浪潮之前,圣经就已经不再是一个静态的、单一的实体。各种不同语言的大量替代翻译和评论传统开始共存,在某些时候也相互影响。此外,我们认为,相互竞争的翻译,甚至是涉及基督教核心教义的段落,都与殖民地新教徒中一些最重大的争议密不可分,比如我们的主要案例研究——关于普遍拯救教义的辩论。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.40
自引率
25.00%
发文量
7
期刊介绍: Religion and American Culture is devoted to promoting the ongoing scholarly discussion of the nature, terms, and dynamics of religion in America. Embracing a diversity of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives, this semiannual publication explores the interplay between religion and other spheres of American culture. Although concentrated on specific topics, articles illuminate larger patterns, implications, or contexts of American life. Edited by Philip Goff, Stephen Stein, and Peter Thuesen.
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