The Writing on the Wall: High Art, Popular Culture and the Bible

by Maggi Dawn

In an increasingly secularized society, the average person is unlikely to have a working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language, and even the fabric of our society—such as our justice system—are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives the full text of a story from the Bible and explains its original significance, then shows how this story has become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son, and Mary Magdalene all feature—along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Ian McEwan, and The Beatles to Monty Python. The Writing on the Wall opens up not just the Bible but also much of popular culture, and is for the everyday reader as well as the churchgoer.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Art

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2010

Reviews

[Glenn Williams]

Interesting book, and although I found it difficult to get into and a little dry in places, was fascinated to find in a number of places of how biblical accounts have been depicted in art, music and literature throughout the centuries. I'd love to spend a few days in some of the Art Museums throughout Europe (without kids!) appreciating some of perspectives behind what was painted.

Challenging to me was learning how my own perspective on reading and interpreting biblical accounts has been just as much influenced by years of these accounts being portrayed through many different lens and cultures.