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The evidence is everywhere: fundamentalist reading can stir passions and provoke violence that changes the world. Amid such present-day conflagrations, this illuminating book reminds us of the sources, and profound consequences, of Christian fundamentalism in the sixteenth century. James Simpson focuses on a critical moment in early modern England, specifically the cultural transformation that allowed common folk to read the Bible for the first time. Widely understood and accepted as the grounding moment of liberalism, this was actually, Simpson tells us, the source of fundamentalism, and of different kinds of persecutory violence. His argument overturns a widely held interpretation of sixteenth-century Protestant reading--and a crucial tenet of the liberal tradition. After exploring the heroism and achievements of sixteenth-century English Lutherans, particularly William Tyndale, Burning to Read turns to the bad news of the Lutheran Bible. Simpson outlines the dark, dynamic, yet demeaning paradoxes of Lutheran reading: its demands that readers hate the biblical text before they can love it; that they be constantly on the lookout for unreadable signs of their own salvation; that evangelical readers be prepared to repudiate friends and all tradition on the basis of their personal reading of Scripture. Such reading practice provoked violence not only against Lutheranism's stated enemies, as Simpson demonstrates; it also prompted psychological violence and permanent schism within its own adherents. The last wave of fundamentalist reading in the West provoked 150 years of violent upheaval; as we approach a second wave, this powerful book alerts us to our peril. (20080207)
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Burning to Read
BURNING TO READ English Fundamentalism and Its Reformation Opponents
÷@ JAMES SIMPSON
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 2007
Copyright © 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Simpson, James, 1954– Burning to read : English fundamentalism and its Reformation opponents / James Simpson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-674-02671-1 (alk.paper) ISBN-10: 0-674-02671-3 (alk. paper) 1. Great Britain—Church history—16th century. 2. Reading. I. Title. BR375.S54 2007 274.2′06—dc22
2007011203
I dedicate this book to my friends Christopher Clark and Amitav Ghosh, whose “gentle conference” over many years contributed to it (and very much more) in such rewarding and pleasurable ways.
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Acknowledgments
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I love writing books. Whether my readers love reading them is altogether another matter. If they don’t, the fault is entirely mine. If they do, then I’m afraid I’m unable to take all the credit. I have been stimulated by numerous colleagues at many events in the making of this book. Dialogue at the following institutions during the years 2003–2006 was, invariably, deeply rewarding: University of Cambridge, University of Connecticut at Storrs, Korea University (Seoul), Duke University, Western Michigan University, University of Melbourne, College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts), Northwestern University, and Harvard University. I thank the British Academy for offering me a grant to write this book, a grant that events finally prevented me from accepting. Harvard University granted me generous periods of leave, as well as an exceptionally stimulating collegial environment, for which I offer the warmest thanks. The outside readers’ reports were profoundly helpful: one encouraged the Press to publish the manuscript exactly as it was (not unwelcome advice), while the other made dozens of no less welcome suggestions for change, many of wh