In the Beginning There Was Darkness: A Blind Person's Conversations With the Bible

by John M. Hull

When John Hull went blind he realised that the Bible was written by sighted people. Even Jesus shared in the attitudes of his day towards blindness. In writing this exceptional book, Hull ignored the printed text and listened to the Bible on tape. The result is an entirely novel interpretation, which challenges the sighted monopology yet brings fresh insights into the Bible for both sighted and blind. This book makes a powerful contribution to the burgeoning interest in theologies of disability.

Genres: Disability, Theology, Christianity, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

John Martin Hull was Emeritus Professor of Religious Education at the University of Birmingham. He was the author of a number of books and many articles in the fields of religious education, practical theology and disability. The latter interest arose from his experiences, and personal and theological reflections, on becoming blind in mid-career. He edited the British Journal of Religious Education for 25 years, and co-founded the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values, of which he was general secretary for 32 years, and president emeritus at the time of his death. After retirement he pursued a further interest as Honorary Professor of Practical Theology at the Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham, England.

Reviews

[Jon Coutts]

This is a marvelous book, making the Bible a strange new world again. Hull teaches how darkness has a place in the day God calls good, and how the light of the world became an object to be lit who is known by and with those who have not seen but believed.

[Daniel Rempel]

Really interesting connections between the autobiographical experiences of a blind man and biblical texts on blindness and themes connected to blindness.

[Angela]

Gives a window in to how to read the Bible from the perspective of a disabled person.

[Fubzi]

A perspective everyone should hear. Well written and easy to follow.

[Mr S Jarvis]

A personal and theological look at the Bible from a person who became blind. well worth a read

[Lorraine]

Too much prooftexting, disconjointed discussion. Sometimes a passage was just a vehicle to tell an anecdote or give advice on interacting with a blind person. Not a terribly profound interpretation of texts (sometimes took too much offense to examples of biblical stories involving blindness -- any other marginalized group could do the same thing with the bible).
Never pulls out an overarching theme or implication, so those 'messages' he does pull out are sometimes in conflict with each other.

And it didn't give me too much insight for my course paper.