Chosen Peoples

Gareth Atkins is Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Queens' College, CambridgeShinjini Das is a Lecturer in Modern Extra-European History at the University of East AngliaBrian Murray is Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at King’s College London

'The flag follows the cross and in this case reaffirms it. The received understanding is that the Age of Enlightenment put to rest the dominance of religion in modern Western cultures. This collection proves Christianity and its political avatar nationalism truly underscored the age of empires. The impact was as profound on indigenous nationalisms, with subordinated societies discovering their distinct identities in the wake of first contact with colonizing Christians. Among the many case studies is Khoisan national renewal in the Cape Colony: Jared McDonald examines Christian liberation as a means to racial equality (albeit short-lived) in British South Africa. The Bible as 19th-century political testament echoed the late medieval struggle between an imperial, all-powerful church and the desire for national congregations to access the word of God in their national languages. Centralization was at odds with dissemination, a conflict the Russian czarist confessional state experienced rather keenly. Atkins (history, Queens' College, Cambridge, UK), Das (modern extra-European history, Univ. of East Anglia, UK), and Murray (19th-century literature, King's College London, UK) clearly establish that the Bible was alive and well in the long 19th century.'--J. L. Meriwether, Roger Williams UniversitySumming Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association.

• Introduction – Gareth Atkins, Shinjini Das and Brian H. MurrayPart I: Peoples and lands1 ‘A bad and dangerous book?’: the biblical identity politics of the Demerara Slave Rebellion – John Coffey2 Babylon, the Bible and the Australian Aborigines – Hilary M. Carey3 ‘The Ships of Tarshish’: the Bible and British Maritime Empire – Gareth Atkins4 Jeremiah in Tara: British Israel and the Irish past – Brian H. MurrayPart II: The Bible in transit and translation5 The British and Foreign Bible Society’s Arabic Bible translations: a study in language politics – Heather J. Sharkey6 Empire and nation in the politics of the Russian Bible – Stephen K. Batalden7 Contested identity: the Veda as an alternative to the Bible – Dorothy Figueira8 ‘The Bible makes all nations one’: Biblical literacy and Khoesan national renewal in the Cape Colony – Jared McDonald9 Distinction and dispersal: the nineteenth-century roots of segregationist folk theology in the American South – Stephen R. Haynes10 Afterword/afterlife: identity, genealogy, legacy – David N. LivingstoneSelect bibliographyIndex