Changing Horizons: Reflections on a Decade at Oxford University’s Centre for Reception History of the Bible

Abstract

The 400 th anniversary celebrations of the King James Bible in 2011 catapulted discussion of biblical texts and their cultural significance into the media spotlight. Articles assessing the impact of the King James translation on language and literature were regular newspaper features, whilst lectures and debates on the subject by high-profile figures such as Melvyn Bragg 1 regularly appeared in University calendars. The focus on the cultural impact of the Bible is one that has been rapidly growing over recent years within the field of biblical studies, reflected in the emergence of new methodological approaches. There has been a burgeoning interest in what has become known as ‘reception history of the Bible,’ that is exploring the ‘afterlives’ 2 of biblical texts – not just their original contexts – to discover how texts have had an impact in different cultural situations. Oxford’s Faculty of Theology has pioneered research in this area through its Centre for Reception History of the Bible. Founded in 2002 by Professor Christopher Rowland and Dr. Christine Joynes, its aim has been to foster interdisciplinary discussion across the Humanities, between those who are researching the use and 1 Melvyn Bragg is a well-known British radio and television broadcaster, as well as a prolific novelist. 2 The term ‘afterlife’ is not here used to imply that somehow the real life of the text ceased prior to its reception. I use the term in the sense adopted by J. Z. Smith in his SBL Presidential address (2009, 23 n27), where he applies it in the sense of ‘continuing life.’