Description
Book SynopsisAn American Biblical Orientalism examines the life and work of Eli Smith, William McClure Thomson, and Edward Robinson and their descriptions of the “Bible Lands.” While there has been a great deal written about American travelogues to the Holy Lands, this book focuses on how these three prominent American Protestants described the indigenous peoples, and how those images were consumed by American Christians who had little direct experience with the “Bible Lands.” David D. Grafton argues that their publications (Biblical Researches, Later Biblical Researches, and The Land and the Book) profoundly impacted the way that American Protestants read and interpreted the Bible in the late nineteenth century. The descriptions and images of the people found their way into American Bible Dictionaries, Theological Dictionaries, and academic and religious circles of a growing bible readership in North America. Ultimately, the people of late Ottoman society (e.g. Jews, Christians and Muslims) were essentialized as the living characters of the Bible. These peoples were fit into categories as heroes or villains from biblical stories, and rarely seen as modern people in their own right. Thus, they were “orientalized,” in the words of Edward Said.
Trade ReviewIn this lively book, David Grafton introduces three nineteenth-century writers – the missionaries Eli Smith and William McClure Thomson, and the biblical scholar, Edward Robinson – who shaped how U.S. readers imagined the Bible Lands and the 'American Protestant place in the world.' By presenting Middle Eastern people as if they were latter-day biblical characters, Grafton argues, this trio projected fantasies which fueled ideas about American exceptionalism and exerted a dangerous, long-term impact on U.S.-Middle Eastern relations. At the same time, they inspired American evangelicals in ways that remain visible until today. Subtly analyzed, yet written in a bold style, Grafton’s account of what he calls 'American Biblical Orientalism' will draw a wide range of readers and stimulate vivid debate. -- Heather J. Sharkey, University of Pennsylvania
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Images of the “Oriental” among early American evangelicals 2. Eli Smith (1801-1857), “First True Orientalist” 3. A Scientific American Biblical Orientalism 4. Robinson’s American Oriental Bible Dictionaries 5. William McClure Thomson and the “Fifth Gospel” 6. Study of the Biblical Orient Conclusion: American Biblical Orientalism and the Modern Middle East
