Harnessing Chaos: The Bible in English Political Discourse since 1968

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This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Harnessing Chaos is an explanation of changes in dominant politicized assumptions about what the Bible really means in English culture since the 1960s. James G. Crossley looks at how the social upheavals of the 1960s, and the economic shift from the post-war dominance of Keynesianism to the post-1970s dominance of neoliberalism, brought about certain emphases and nuances in the ways in which the Bible is popularly understood, particularly in relation to dominant political ideas. This book examines the decline of politically radical biblical interpretation in parliamentary politics and the victory of (a modified form of) Margaret Thatchers re-reading of the liberal Bible tradition, following the normalisation of (a modified form of) Thatcherism more generally. Part I looks at the potential options for politicized readings of the Bible at the end of the the1960s, focussing on the examples of Christopher Hill and Enoch Powell. Part II analyses the role of Thatchers specific contribution to political interpretation of the Bible and assumptions about religion. Part III highlights the importance of (often unintended) ideological changes towards forms of Thatcherite interpretation in popular culture and with particular reference to Monty Pythons Life of Brian and the Manchester music scene between 1976 and 1994. Part IV concerns the modification of Thatchers Bible, particularly with reference to the embrace of socially liberal values, by looking at the electoral decline of the Conservative Party through the work of Jeffrey Archer on Judas and the final victory of Thatcherism through Tony Blairs exegesis. Some consideration is then given to the Bible in an Age of Coalition and how politically radical biblical interpretations retain a presence outside parliamentary politics. Harnessing Chaos concludes with reflections on why politicians in English politicians bother using the Bible at all.

Author Bio

James G. Crossley is Professor of Bible, Culture and Politics in Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield, UK. His most recent publications include Jesus in an Age of Neoliberalism: Quests, Scholarship and Ideology (2012).