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Introduction
Althoughintheculturallandscapeofthelatetwentieth-andearlytwenty-first
centuryBritain,theBible1isnolongeranunequivocallydominantorunques-
tionablyauthoritativetext,itcontinuestoattractattentionofnovelists,poetsand
film-makers.Seeminglyunafectedbythedeclineofthetraditionallyunderstood
biblicalliteracy,orbythefactthat-toparaphraseGyörgyLukacs’sfamiliarquip
-thenovelisaworldabandonedbytheGodofScripture,biblicalstoriesand
charactersremainattractiveevenforartistswhodonotharbouranyreligious
beliefsorforthosewhoweartheiratheismontheirsleeve.Whenscholarsofthe
latetwentieth-andearlytwenty-firstcenturyBible-relatedfictiontrytoidentify
theproblemsraisedtodaybytheimaginativelytransformedBible,mostofthem
pointtowardstheologyorreligion.Itiseitherclaimedthatthesenarrativeshelp
toexploretheologicalissues(Tate2008;Tate2019;Holderness2015),oritisas-
sertedthatbiblicalrewritessupplementtherecentphilosophicalrecuperations
ofChristianity,oferametafictionalreflectiononprocessesotherwisestudiedin
biblicalcriticism(Mączyńska2015),andengageinintricateintertextualrelations
withtheBibleandextra-biblicalliterature(Wright2007).Fewcritics,however,
areinterestedinthepossibilitythatcontemporarybiblicalrewritingsengagewith
somethingelsethanreligiousissues,andthosewhodonoticethatbiblicalfiction
isanimatedbynon-theologicalconcernstendtoprioritizenon-Britishfiction
(Benedix2009)orfocusonthewaytheBible-relatednovelsrespondtowhole
traditionsordiscoursesratherthantoparticularcontemporarycrises(King
2000).Tisbookattemptstoshowthatthepost-1970sBritishbiblicalrewritings
usetheBibletoaddresstheissuesofnationalidentity,women’scooperationand
Britishliberaltradition,allofwhichhavebeenraisedduringthetransforma-
tionsof-ortheacutelyfeltcrisesin-Britishcultural,socialorpoliticallifeof
1Insofaras“theBible”assuchdoesnotexist(thereareonlymultipleBibles,i.e.divergent
andcompetingconstructionsofthescripturalcontent,itsselectionandsequence),theterm“the
Bible”usedinthisbook,unlessotherwiseindicated,istobeunderstoodastheProtestantBible.
QuotationsaretakenfromtheRevisedStandardVersion.
