Words of Power: Reading Shakespeare and the Bible

by Jem Bloomfield

Shakespeare and the Bible are two of the icons of world culture. They are interwoven into the language and customs of much of the English-speaking world, from turns of phrase which people instinctively borrow to express their own feelings, to the grand state occasions which bolster their own authority. Their stories and characters are used by people to sell cigars and crown monarchs, to start wars and to comfort the grieving, to crack jokes and train businesspeople. They are sources of enormous authority and, at the same time, part of everyday life. Many people declare their belief in, or allegiance to, these books, and many others suggest that somehow all knowledge is bound up within them. They are both "sacred texts" in the broadest sense, being treated in distinctively different ways from other books. This volume is an exploration of some of the ways Shakespeare and the Bible are revered and understood in British and American culture, drawing on academic scholarship and history to elucidate the particular roles they play in our societies. The contrasts can be just as illuminating as the comparisons. Throughout 'Words of Power' Jem Bloomfield focuses less on the meaning of the texts, but the ways those meanings are contested, reinterpreted and played out in the world.

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2016

Reviews

[Penelope Wallace]

Many people give the Bible a unique place among works of literature. Many other people give one to Shakespeare. In this book, Jem Bloomfield (Assistant Professor of Literature but also a practising Christian) describes and compares the special treatment as "sacred texts" given to each, both through history and in modern culture.
This is a stimulating and even provocative exercise. It also means that the book is a relevant read for anyone interested in Elizabethan theatre, how the NT canon was put together, St Augustine's dubious opinion of people who read silently rather than aloud, debates about scriptural authority, the use of language to impress or exclude, and whether it's legitimate to ask what Hamlet was doing before his father died. Surely that's a lot of people.
The style is very accessible and often entertaining without being frivolous, and my main complaint is that each chapter opens up enough questions for a book of its own.
(I have never met the author, but we are friends on Facebook.)