Origins of Narrative.

Stephen Prickett specializes in the relationship between the Bible and Literary Theory. Many theologians do this, but Prickett is unusual, being Professor of English at Glasgow University. Receiving great acclaim for Words and The Word in 1986, he now discusses the extent to which Romantic thought owed its ethos to Biblical Narrative. This is not a study of the Bible per se, rather a demonstration of how it became a literary metatype, as an increasingly self-aware culture appropriated it.

Prickett begins by interpreting the story of Jacob's theft of Esau's birthright (Genesis 27) as indicative of the appropriation of a tradition. Just as Jacob appropriated Esau's rights as elder son (by selling him his soup), the Romantics `historicized the Bible, and transformed it from divine revelation into a cultural and aesthetic artifact' (p. 13). This is Prickett's main thesis, which he defends admirably, also covering the implications of this subtle but distinctive change.

The first stage …