Theological Polemics Research Articles

Sheikh Abdurrauf Al-Singkili's Theological Thought and its Influence on the Understanding of Tawhid in Aceh Society

Theological discourse is a unique and interesting field of Islamic studies that has colored intellectual debates and determined the dynamics of the Islamic world, both in the Middle East and in Nusantara. This study examines Sheikh Abdurrauf al-Singkili's theological thought contained in the book 'Umdat Al-Muhtajin Ila Suluk Maslak Al-Mufridin, which was intentionally written to guide the people of Aceh in their religious understanding during the theological polemic of the time, namely the issue of wujudiyah. This research focuses on the theological thought of the book and its influence on the practice of tawhid in Aceh society. The study found that the theological thought contained in the book is influenced by the Ash'ari theological school, characterized by the mention of Allah's attributes and the rejection of Jabariyya and Qadariyya. At the time, the book had an influence on the understanding of tawhid and the path to Allah, but its influence was lost as it was no longer used as a reference in the development of Islamic knowledge in the dayahs, which are known as the centers of tawhid studies in Aceh. This reality should serve as a reference that Acehnese scholars' theological thought can be re-studied in the development of Islamic studies, both in dayahs and Islamic universities.

Additional Considerations on the Iconoclast Issue in the Hesychast Controversy

"Mid-fourteenth-century Byzantine sources bear witness to an increased interest in Iconoclasm among the theologians involved in the Hesychast Controversy. The writings of the defenders of icon veneration were mined for authoritative quotations and the history of Iconoclasm became a repository of historical role models. This article is comprised of two sections. The first part expands a catalogue of texts of the epoch which make explicit reference to precedents in the Iconoclast period. The second part assesses, first, the polemical advantages and disadvantages of the accusation of iconoclasm in mid-fourteenth-century Byzantium by revisiting the afterlife of this label after the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Secondly, it traces the dynamics of how Iconoclasm was remembered in the Hesychast debate, distinguishing between the mythologizing and the philological levels of remembrance. The conclusion draws a connection between Nikephoros Gregoras’ approaches to theological polemics and to hagiography. The initial success and eventual fading-away of the iconoclastic motif in Hesychast polemics is explained by the uniqueness of Gregoras’ literary method and his personal circumstances. Keywords: Nikephoros Gregoras, John Kyparissiotes, Theodore Graptos, Byzantine literature, cultural memory, Palaeologan period, Iconoclasm, Hesychasm "

Al-Jadal al-Kalāmī Bayn Nahḍah al-Ulamā’ wa al-Wahhābiyah fī ‘Facebook’: Ṣafhah ‘Abd al-Wahhāb Ahmad Namūdzajan

The article discusses the struggle for the “Aswaja theological authority” between the Nahdatul Ulama (NU) and Wahhabi groups on Facebook. This article records how the forms, issues and shifts of the discourse. The study was carried out by observing young NU elite accounts who actively criticized Wahhabi theology on facebook. Data analysis uses discourse analysis. The study found that the struggle for the "Aswaja theological authority" was carried out by the Wahhabi group's post which the NU group responded to. The struggle for the " Aswaja theological authority" was carried out by presenting both classical and contemporary Ulama books from each group. The most discussed theological issues are related to the nature of God, Prophethood, and ‘is Ash'aria Ahlusunnah’? Finally, the struggle for "Aswaja's theological authority" underwent a shift, shifting religious authority, namely complicated theological polemics, and turats on social media have become a common commodity, which anyone is welcome to comment on.

Review: Making Christian History: Eusebius of Caesarea and His Readers, by Michael J. Hollerich

Book Review| February 01 2023 Review: Making Christian History: Eusebius of Caesarea and His Readers, by Michael J. Hollerich Michael J. Hollerich, Making Christian History: Eusebius of Caesarea and His Readers. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021. 316 pp. ISBN: 9780520295360. $95. Philip Wood Philip Wood Aga Khan University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Studies in Late Antiquity (2023) 7 (1): 166–169. https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2023.7.1.166 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Philip Wood; Review: Making Christian History: Eusebius of Caesarea and His Readers, by Michael J. Hollerich. Studies in Late Antiquity 1 February 2023; 7 (1): 166–169. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2023.7.1.166 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentStudies in Late Antiquity Search Eusebius of Caesarea was a prolific polymath. Writing in the aftermath of Constantine’s accession, he was the author of biblical scholarship, apologetics, history, theological polemic, and celebrations of the new Constantinian order (such as the Vita Constantini). He worked at a major cusp of Christian history, when Christian thinkers tried to sort out their new relationship to a state that had persecuted them in the very recent past. Michael Hollerich’s Making Christian History focuses on the significance of Eusebius’s work as an ecclesiastical historian and on his enduring influence on the genre of ecclesiastical history. Chapter 1 examines Eusebius’s Historia Ecclesiae (HE) itself. The HE can be read, in part, as the emplotment of a Roman civil war onto the biblical narrative of divine deliverance. But it was also a continuation of Luke-Acts, which saw bishops (and exegetes) as the successors to the apostles and Nicaea as... You do not currently have access to this content.

Glaube(n) im Disput: Neuere Forschungen zu den altgläubigen Kontroversisten des Reformationszeitalters ed. by Karl-Heinz Braun, Wilbirgis Klaiber, and Christoph Moos

Reviewed by: Glaube(n) im Disput: Neuere Forschungen zu den altgläubigen Kontroversisten des Reformationszeitalters ed. by Karl-Heinz Braun, Wilbirgis Klaiber, and Christoph Moos Ralph Keen Glaube(n) im Disput: Neuere Forschungen zu den altgläubigen Kontroversisten des Reformationszeitalters. Edited by Karl-Heinz Braun, Wilbirgis Klaiber, and Christoph Moos. (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag. 2020. Pp. ix, 404. €68,00. ISBN: 9783402116074.) This volume of proceedings from a 2017 conference brings together research on the multifaceted nature of Catholic resistance to the Reformation. Attempts in the first half of the sixteenth century to respond to evangelical challenges sought to emphasize a unity and coherence in a tradition that beneath the surface was varie-gated and contentious. The papers in this volume are the products of close reading in little-known sources, guided by an awareness that “believing is a communicative process” (p. 7). In an introductory essay, Peter Waller describes the evolution of the medieval disputatio from its beginnings in early Scholasticism to its expansion, beyond the academic form, to a mode of engagement with Judaism and Islam as well as a genre within Humanism. Karl-Heinz Braun offers an incisive critique of modern conceptions of terms like “mystical’ or “Augustinian” with a reminder that they were less clear in the sixteenth century than they seem after a half-millennium. Kenneth Appold’s paper on the relationship of disputation and consensus provides valuable nuance to the tension between difference and unity, especially in the 1540s; while Kai Bremer’s close analysis of the debate about the authorities Luther invoked in An den Adel shows how that dispute shaped later controversies, especially the extent to which these involved the authority of the tradition. A section dedicated to contexts includes Axel Gotthard on the political priorities behind protecting the Roman Church and the specific threats to order that the Diets sought to counter, a discussion that raises the question of whether religious dissension leads to political disintegration. The role of the University of Paris in setting (and enforcing) norms for Catholic orthodoxy is ably detailed by Andreas Sohm’s depiction of the tensions among the many colleges and between many of them and the Sorbonne. Sohm’s discussion is followed by Peter Walter on the question of the priority of the theological tradition over the authority of the papacy (and, by implication, hierarchical order) as sources of authority. The section on patronage and professional networks includes Gabriele Jancke on the social relations that sustained Johannes Cochlaeus and his work and that illustrate what she calls Konfliktkultur, a world defined by its affinities and antagonisms. Christoph Moos offers a similar contextualization for Johannes Fabri, bishop of Vienna and the friend and patron of a wide circle of humanists, including Erasmus. These two papers are followed by Markus Wriedt on networks of the learned during this period, defined both in printing affiliations and by geography, with attention to theology (especially the controversial form) as its own community of discourse. Wilbirgis Klaiber’s discussion of the Franciscan Johannes Nas shows us a controversialist’s self-presentation to his readers. Women rarely figure in histories of polemical theology, but Anne Conrad describes the work of nuns and lay [End Page 200] teachers as part of the polemical enterprise, the Orders being their own networks and schools. Just as composers of Protestant pamphlets frequently relied on images, so did the Catholic resistance, though on the larger scale of church décor. Andreas Tacke describes confessionalizing elements in pre-Tridentine church iconography fostered by a patronage system of dukes and bishops. Theoretical perspective is offered by Bent Jörgensen’s discussion of confessional self-fashioning and his depiction of the tension between the “old” and the “new” faithful as reflected in pejorative epithets, many meant to delegitimize the Reformers as unchristian. Defining the old faith was a point of contention within the Church, as Martin Hille demonstrates in his study of the polemical exchange between Georg Nigrinus and Kaspar Franck the Younger about pastoral duties. The definition of the Church is the topic of a comparison by Thomas Dietrich on the ecclesiologies of Luther and Bellarmine. A final essay by Herman Selderhuis on directions for future research...

From Scripturalism to the ‘Chain of Tradition’: Between Rabbanite and Karaite Judaism

This article focuses on the controversy and theological polemics advanced by the Jewish-Karaite movement against one of the central concepts of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism—the Oral Torah and the legitimacy of its transmission (“Chain of Tradition”). This process passed through a series of formative stages of Karaism: from radical scripturalism fundamentally rejecting any transmitted tradition to the gradual development of alternative “authentic” Chain of Tradition, adjusting its principles to vital social and intellectual needs. This case of intra-confessional Judaic debate is presented here in the wider context of comparative religious phenomena. In fact, this paradigm present in different forms in the other Abrahamic religions can be viewed as a search for balance between the oral and written traditions. In spite of numerous differences between religions, this paradigm explains to some extent the similarity in arguments of the intra-confessional polemics in Abrahamic religions, as well as the similarity in the argumentation of Muslim, Christian, and Karaite polemicists against the Talmud.

One God, Two Powers, and the Rabbinic Rejection of Subordinationism

Abstract This article furthers our understanding of rabbinic theology through an examination of its characteristic modes of expression. I demonstrate that although the rabbinic literature frequently polemicizes against perceived deviant theologies, it refrains from explicit expressions of God’s unity. This disinclination derives from the target and intent of rabbinic theological polemic. The rabbis’ opponents were not Christian binitarians who believed in multiple divine persons, but what I will refer to as Jewish subordinationists who believed in created divine agents through which God acts in the world. The rabbis were therefore less concerned with the ontological nature of God’s unity than they were with distancing all other beings from God’s sole sovereignty. My work provides additional textual support for the growing scholarly consensus that Jewish proponents of Logos theologies were among the rabbis’ earliest opponents, but it challenges the current convention that interprets these theologies in a primarily Christian binitarian context.

Literary Spoils of War in Uppsala in Practice – Controversial Theology

Religious conflicts did not only take place on battlefields in the 17th century, but in far wider contexts. We see them also in propaganda, poetry, sermons and academic discourse. When the literary spoils of war were taken by the Swedish from Catholic libraries in Poland to the Lutheran Uppsala University, many books were not highly valued. These Catholic books ended up stored separately from the ‘sound and pure’ volumes found in the first library building in Uppsala. In this article, it is shown how these Catholic books did at times prove useful, at least in the field of polemical theology. In fact, teaching at the university took an increasingly anti-Catholic direction after the arrival of the collections from Braniewo and Frombork to Uppsala, with the main confessional enemy apparently being Robert Bellarmine.

The Hanbalite Theology: A Critical Study of The Hanbalite Theological Creeds and Polemical Adversaries

The Hanbalite school, well-known as a traditional school of Islamic law, played important role in theological disscourses in Islamic history. The fact, however, fails to be paid enough attention because of prevalent knowledge among Islamic society that the Hanbalite is only and a school of Islamic law. The Hanbalite theology is frequently abandoned in Islamic scholarship, although several researches have tried to reveal them. This article is aimed to extend previous researche of the Hanbalite theology through the description of its creeds and the elaboration of theological polemics between the Hanbalites and their adversaries. This article employs the history of idea by analyzing references written by Hanbalite scholars and other related sources. The references are collected and categorized according to the need of topics and then interpreted to provide readers with overall picture of the Hanbalite theology and their polemics along history. The Hanbalites creeds are based on textual understanding on Quranic texts and prophetic traditions. The creeds are underpinned by the idea that the Quran is not created and Quranic verses on God’s attributes should be understood textually. The idea led Hanbalite scholars to do a debate with other theologians. The article provides a more vivid description on Hanbalite creeds and analyzes the creeds in the light polemics launched by the Hanbalite scholars against their rivals. The article, however, does not elaborate detailly on each Hanbalite scholar’s contribution in forming sophisticated Hanbalite theology.

The means of comic in the theological and polemical treatise “Exposing the lies of the Russian schismatics” by Theophylakt Lopatynskyi

The subject of the study is the theological and polemical treatise “Exposing the lies of the Russian schismatics” (1745) by Theophylact Lopatynskyi, which was a reaction to the “Pomeranian answers” of the Denisov brothers. Determining common topics the author pays attention to their totally different resolving. The role of Russian schismatic literature is underlined. Besides, phases of development and character stylistic features and main direction of Ukrainian theological polemic that time are determined. The Research methodology basis on the works by D. Chyzhevskyi, L. Ushkalov, archbishop Ihor (Isichenko), I. Bondarevska, M. Sulyma, D. Lykhachov, O. Panchenko, I. Yeromin, L. Sazonova, N. Hurianova and others. The aim of the study is to outline the functions of sarcasm and irony in the treatise “Exposing the lies of the Russian schismatics” by Theophylact Lopatynskyi, who initiates the controversy of theologians of the “Kyiv school” with representatives of the Vygo-Leksyn community. The article first describes the means of the comic in the treatise “Exposing the lies of the Russian schismatics” Theophylact of Lopatynskyi (sarcasm, satire, irony). It testifies the scientific novelty. The article describes comic relief such as sarcasm, satire, irony. It is stated that they are the main features of the Theophylact Lopatynskyi style. The author resorts to them in order to create in the imagination of the readers an image of communities of old believers as a places of crooks and ignorant people. This opinion contrasts with the image of divisive lands as an embodiment of evil and a kind of hell space which are created by Dmytro Tuptalo earlier. In the text “Exposing the lies of the Russian schismatics” the authors of the “Pomeranian answers” actually appears as its characters. In addition, the means of their characterization take note of the gradual secularization of literature.

Development in Theological Method and Argument in John of Damascus

Terminological confusion exacerbated by councils divided the church in late antiquity. John of Damascus addressed the resultant terminological impasse by providing the re-established Jerusalem patriarchate with theological polemic that reemphasized the preeminence of the Council of Nicaea. John’s early works relied on scripture and patristic argument, but after his philosophical works, his theological method couched scripture and patristic argument in terms of a new philosophical acumen. Building on this change in theological method, I argue that John’s theological argument also underwent development using the term “perichōrēsis” as a case study, resulting in a provisional date-list of John’s polemical works. I then argue that development in John appears to have an ecumenical motivation by analyzing his redeployment of the theological technical term “perichōrēsis” from his Christology to his Trinitarianism. I argue that John subordinates his Christology to a terminologically clarified Nicene Trinitarianism in order to address concerns of his local inter-locutors by re-casting local christological debate in three ways: 1) he couched his Christology in terms of a specifically Nicene heresiology shifting fifth- and sixth-century theologians off-stage, whether Cyril of Alexandria, Severus of Antioch, or Maximus the Confessor, pushing Gregory of Nazianzus to the fore as universal authority; 2) he avoided the critique of Aristotelianism by couching his Christology in terms of the Nicene locus classicus, John 10.30; and finally, 3) he adroitly granted but restated the theological premise of his interlocutors turning their argument on its head. Thus, John grounds his innovative theological polemic in the tradition while providing his bishop and the newly re-established patriarchate with a more progressive and ecumenical theological method, argument, and polemic.

The Theological Polemics of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield: Differences in Their Understanding of the "Great Awakening" of the 1740s in New England

The first "Great Awakening" took hold of all British colonies in North America in the 1730s-1750s and developed contemporaneously with the Enlightenment movement, which had a significant impact on all aspects of life in the colonies, influencing religion, politics and ideology. The inhabitants of the colonies, professing different religious views, for the first time experienced a general spiritual upsurge. The colonies had never seen anything like the Great Awakening in scale and degree of influence on society. This was the first movement in American history that was truly intercolonial in nature, contributing to the formation of a single religious and partially ideological space in British America. The beginning of the Great Awakening in British America was instigated by both the colonial traditions of religious renewal (the so-called "revivals") and new ideas coming from Europe, hence this religious movement cannot be understood without considering its European roots nor not taking into account its transatlantic nature. The development of pietism in Holland and Germany and the unfolding of Methodism on the British Isles greatly influenced Protestant theology on both sides of the Atlantic. This article explores the differences in understanding the nature of the Great Awakening by its two leaders - J. Edwards and J. Whitefield.

ДАГЕСТАНСКИЕ БОГОСЛОВЫ О ПЕРЕСЕЛЕНЧЕСКОМ ДВИЖЕНИИ МУСУЛЬМАН КАВКАЗА В КОНЦЕ XIX - НАЧАЛЕ XX ВЕКА

The article analyses Dagestan theologians’ discourse on the Muslims resettlement to the Middle East countries at the end of the XIX - the beginning of the XX century. The paper examines written sources testifying the diversity of opinions concerning religious justification of khidzhra (resettlement). Special attention is paid to analysing the views of supporters and propagators of emigration. The religious factor plays an important role in history of the Caucasian Muslims resettlement and theological polemics on this issue is a relevant research area.

THE QUR’ANIC JESUS

This article examines the theological polemics between Islam and Christianity focusing on the prophetic attribution of Isa al-Masih in Islamic tradition. It takes a close look at the Qur’anic construction upon the Prophet Isa al-Masih as a human being who served as a messenger of God, while briefly comparing the Islamic construction to the Christian tradition projecting Isa-al-Masih as the son of God. Rather than emphasising differences between the two traditions, this article, through the Quranic concept kalimatun sawa’ (the shared principle or meeting point), sheds a new light on a shared belief between Islam and Christian traditions. Both Islam and Christianity believe that Isa al-Masih is the saviour for humanity, the liberator for the weak and the oppressed. The Qur’an maintains Isa al-Masih as one of the ulul azmi meaning that the prophets who successfully liberated his people.

Belief Beyond the Bugbear: Propositional Theology and Intellectual Authority in a Transylvanian Catholic Ethnographic Memoir

ABSTRACT By overlooking the history of Catholic thought, anthropologists have made contemporary processes for negotiating intellectual authority in the Catholic Church into a lacuna in the anthropology of Christianity. I develop this claim by examining an ethnographic memoir called The Secret of Csíksomlyó by Árpád Daczó, a widely known contemporary Transylvanian Hungarian Catholic intellectual. Daczó blends autobiography and ethnography to argue that the Hungarian Virgin Mary is a Christianized pagan moon goddess. Halfway through, Daczó switches genres to propositional theology and defends himself to the magisterium, the Church's institutional guarantor of orthodoxy. I situate Daczó's effort to anticipate his critics in the history of Catholic-Protestant theological polemics, which helped make propositional theology into the Catholic Church's privileged language for investigating heresy. By placing Daczó's use of propositional theology against the backdrop of contemporary Catholic theologians’ debates about the magisterium's authority, I challenge anthropological assumptions about the social significance of propositional belief.

OVERCOMING STEREOTYPES (FACTORS WHICH PROVOKE ISLAMOPHOBIA)

In the modern world Islamophobia is one of the most dangerous types of negative stereotypes that give rise to prejudices, discrimination and even aggression. Laypeople and politicians, scholars and theologians bear responsibility for multiplication and distribution of stereotyping in media. The journalists too often are not capable to distinguish religion from its believers. Islam and Muslims are not synonyms: in fact, we are talking about behavioral paradigms of the believers, not about their sacred teaching. Evaluation of Islam as radical, fanatic, intolerant, terrorist, etc., is unjustifi ed and inconsistent. The article argues inadmissibility of using the most common polar adjectives like “radical” and “traditional” for defi ning Islam. It is proposed to carry out the fundamental distinction between the actors at the political front and the participants of ideological and theological polemics. In the fi rst case, it would be appropriate to name «the radicals» as the militant fanatics, while «the traditionalists» as the tolerant Muslims. In the second case, it might be more precise to name one side as the Muslim orthodoxy, while the opposite side — renewal movement or religious reconstruction. The need to free debates involving both the reputable theologians and the ordinary Muslims is urgent. This kind of discussion might help both scholars and media representatives to free themselves from stereotypes that instigate Islamophobia.

A Comparative Analysis of the Theological Polemics of Muslim Brotherhood and Salafiyyah

The experience of the Muslim Ummah in the 19th and 20th centuries has given rise to various revivalist thoughts aimed at reclaiming the lost glory of Islam and returning Muslims to their right position. The Muslim Brotherhood current Salafiyyah groups represent the largest revivalist trend in current time. Despite having the common mission of revitalizing the Ummah, the two trends are always at loggerhead over pressing issues of Islam. Hence, the research focuses on theological polemics as case study for the multitudinous contention between the two trends. Library research methodology was adopted. Findings of the research show that both trends share common fundamental creeds and that the popular theological dichotomy between them is due to various factors namely: the degree of priority attached to creeds, attitude towards equivocal matters of creed such as anthropomorphic status of Allah and lastly theologizing matters which are juristic. The research recommends the needs for the Salafiyyah group to focus on theological training rather than the traditionally theological polemics which was a product of refutation against the evolving heretic sects that are ideologically not existing today.

Polemika pomiędzy Piotrem Mohyłą a Kasjanem Sakowiczem wokół sprawowania sakramentu spowiedzi wcerkwi ruskiej (i unickiej) na podstawie utworów polemicznych ich autorstwa

The article takes the arguments of the pastoral and theological polemics around the celebration of the sacrament of confession in the Orthodox Slavic traditions of the 17th century, based on the works of: “Lithos...” of metropolitan Peter Mohyla and „Perspectiwa…” of rev. Kassian Sakovych.

Aristotle at the Festival: The Orations of Theodore the Stoudite and Byzantine Logical Culture

Theodore plays a prominent role in studies of the “Aristotelian turn” of the second period of Iconoclasm. Scholars have shown how Theodore and Patriarch Nikephoros drew on the Aristotelian tradition to defend icon veneration, especially in polemical treatises like Theodore’s Third Antirrheticus. This article turns to Theodore’s festal homilies to show not only how they can be usefully read against the Antirrhetici for Theodore’s Aristotelian defense of images, but also to show how Theodore’s interest in the logical tradition extended beyond its application to theological polemic.

The Bible on the Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England. Edited by Thomas Fulton and Kristen Poole. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xvi+304.

Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewThe Bible on the Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England. Edited by Thomas Fulton and Kristen Poole. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xvi+304.Kurt SchreyerKurt SchreyerUniversity of Missouri–St. Louis Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreJudging from the essays in The Bible on the Shakespearean Stage, the “turn to religion” remains a stimulating and productive approach to the study of early modern literature and culture. In fact, this volume offers some of the most important contributions to the topic of Shakespeare’s relationship to the biblical text since Hannibal Hamlin’s The Bible in Shakespeare (2013). No mere catalog of biblical allusions, the collection focuses on post-Reformation reading (broadly understood), interpretation, and debate in England and on the Continent. As the editors observe, “Though largely focused on ‘reading’ as an interpretive mode, scholars in this volume are also attentive to the ways that scriptural representations on the stage derive from both the written page and the pulpit; indeed, the pulpit and the stage are both places where the biblical text is, in a sense, performed as well as interpreted” (4). The Shakespearean stage is not dutifully acquiescent to the received doctrine of any denominational or theological camp but rather highly engaged with the vexatious manifestations of contemporary theological polemic. To paraphrase Jesse Lander’s reading of Hamlet in chapter 11, if the Bible may be said to be a groundwork for the play, its presence provokes rather than pacifies the maimed rites and the whirling words that disorient both characters and audience.In the first of the volume’s four parts, both Bruce Gordon and Aaron Pratt demonstrate that bibliographically fixing “the Bibles of the Reformation and post-Reformation periods” is considerably more difficult than we might expect, for they “were by no means static entities” (32), and our modern taxonomies “have obscured from view the actual Bibles and New Testaments that shaped the scriptural encounters of Shakespeare and his contemporaries” (35). Subsequent essays pursue other forms of complexity in fascinating ways, including the intricacies of literal meaning (Jay Zysk), hermeneutical interpretation and debate (Kristen Poole), exegetical harmonization (Tom Bishop), Roman oratory and biblical lament (Adrian Streete), biblical allusions (Beatrice Groves, Hannibal Hamlin, Richard Strier), and political theology (Thomas Fulton). Julia Reinhard Lupton’s afterword not only offers a thoughtful reflection on the contributions to the volume but also gleans the practical wisdom and virtues it promotes for our contemporary community of scholars. Along with Lander’s and Pratt’s essays cited above, Shaina Trapedo’s account of The Merchant of Venice must be singled out for its fresh and inspired approach. The play, she argues, explores the intellectual and doctrinal debt, simultaneously legitimized and denounced, of Reformed Christianity to Jewish scripture and hermeneutics. “Gratiano’s sarcastic ‘I thank thee, Jew’ and appropriation of the term ‘Daniel’ reveal the paradox of gratitude Shakespeare uses to power his play: ever-present in the admission of thanks is a confession of inadequacy and dependence” (184).The ideological thread that intertwines this diverse web of scholarly interests may be found in the book’s subtitle, Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England. Whatever its disavowals of confessional sympathies, the volume’s focus and, one gathers, its real interest lie in Reformed discourses, with the result that the reading practices—biblical and theatrical—of recusant communities are not explored. English Catholicism is, it would seem, a past phenomenon by the late sixteenth century. Even Shakespeare’s medieval Danish prince is “quite clearly” Protestant (80). Some readers may find its contributions uneven or may quibble with particulars, but Fulton and Poole have gathered a formidable body of scholarship to help us think about and with Shakespeare’s religious culture. This collection of essays may be read, excerpted, and deployed in a number of productive ways in the undergraduate and graduate classroom: by Shakespeare play, by biblical book or genre, by early modern material text, or by exegetical debate, to name only a few. It is a must-read for scholars wishing to expand and deepen their knowledge of early modern biblical exegetes and their influence on Shakespeare’s culture and works. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 117, Number 2November 2019 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/705615HistoryPublished online August 07, 2019 For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.