An American Biblical Orientalism

The Construction of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Nineteenth-Century American Evangelical Piety

David D. Grafton

An American Biblical Orientalism: The Construction of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Nineteenth-Century American Evangelical Piety 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 fitted into categories as heroes or villains from biblical stories, and rarely seen as modern people in their own right. Thus, in the words of Edward Said, they were “orientalized."

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 254 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-9787-0486-2 • Hardback • October 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-9787-0487-9 • eBook • October 2019 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

Subjects: Religion / History, History / Middle East / General, History / United States / 19th Century, Social Science / American Studies

An American Biblical Orientalism

The Construction of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Nineteenth-Century American Evangelical Piety

Hardback

eBook

Summary

An American Biblical Orientalism: The Construction of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Nineteenth-Century American Evangelical Piety 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 fitted into categories as heroes or villains from biblical stories, and rarely seen as modern people in their own right. Thus, in the words of Edward Said, they were “orientalized."

Details

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 254 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-9787-0486-2 • Hardback • October 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-9787-0487-9 • eBook • October 2019 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

Subjects: Religion / History, History / Middle East / General, History / United States / 19th Century, Social Science / American Studies

Author

David D. Grafton is professor of Islamic studies and Christian–Muslim relations at the Duncan Black Macdonald Center of Hartford Seminary.

Table of Contents

Introduction

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

Reviews

In this lively book, David D. 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

Aptly titled An American Biblical Orientalism, Grafton’s fascinating book brings together the study of American missions in the Middle East, the history of Biblical interpretation in the United States, and critiques of orientalism. This book sheds new light on a remarkable moment in the nineteenth century when Americans came into close contact with the modern Arab world and yet imagined it to be the ancient, unchanging land of the Bible. This is orientalism with a Biblical twist, fed by American Biblical scholarship and popular accounts of Holy Land tourism. Even missionaries who engaged deeply with the people of the Middle East did not change the imaginings of American Bible readers. Grafton’s study will benefit scholars and students alike, for we cannot understand U.S. religious history or American–Arab relations today without also understanding American Biblical Orientalism.
— Deanna Ferree Womack, Candler School of Theology

An American Biblical Orientalism offers a rich and extensive exploration of nineteenth-century Evangelical responses to and representations of the people of Ottoman Palestine. This is the most substantial consideration to date of two highly influential nineteenth-century figures: William M. Thomson, the missionary to Syria from the United States who wrote the bestselling The Land and the Book, and Edward Robinson, the archaeologist who wrote Biblical Researches in Palestine. Grafton's exploration of these figures offers important insights into Christian-Muslim relations in both the nineteenth-century United States and our own time, and this book is a significant contribution to the growing literature on American Holy Land writing.
— Brian Yothers, University of Texas at El Paso