"This magnificent collection completely re-imagines the vast and well-trodden field of the Bible and Literature. From Chaucer to T.S. Eliot, The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature offers a compelling narrative of how the English literary tradition has itself used, re-written and re-visioned sacred texts.

This Companion explores the Bible's role and influence on individual writers, whilst tracing the key developments of Biblical themes and literary theory through the ages. * An ambitious overview of the Bible's role and influence on English literature - as arguably the most powerful work of literature in history - from the medieval period up through the 20th century * Includes introductory sections to each period giving background information about the Bible as a source text in English literature, and placing writers in their historical context * Draws on examples from medieval, early-modern, eighteenth-century and Romantic, Victorian, and Modernist literature * Includes many 'secular' or 'anti-clerical' writers alongside their 'Christian' contemporaries, revealing how the Bible's text shifts and changes in the writing of each author who reads and studies it