Capitalism, Class, and the Bible

Abstract

Abstract Concepts of ‘class’ have had, at most, a spectral presence in mainstream, critical biblical scholarship. But there are some signs of the return of ‘class’ as an analytical concept and this chapter follows such leads. By using the example of the Bible in English social contexts, this chapter looks at some of the uses of the Bible in relation to the capitalist mode of production and competing class interests. This involves examining working-class assumptions about the Bible and how the Bible has long lost its historic rhetorical power, as well as the construction of a ‘cultured’ middle-class understanding of the Bible where it still holds some rhetorical power to support middle-class material interests, not least in universities. The chapter makes further suggestions about future ethnographic projects involving class-based studies of the Bible and the importance of contextualizing local examples (e.g., England) in the wider context of global capitalism.