The Bible and Western Culture

About the Book

I taught at the University of Southern California for 28 years. During that time I developed a number of courses including "The Bible as Literature," the first such course in the country. which subsequently proliferated in universities around the country. I taught the course for ten years, which attracted upwards of 100 students every semester, deepening my research and knowledge of the Bible and my insights into the Bible's influence on Western Civilization. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is the most obvious evidence of the Bible's artistic inspiration. Michelangelo spent years on his back producing his frescos depicting scenes of the Bible. The ubiquitous presence of the Bible and its influence on virtually every facet of Western Civilization have no equal. Yet few are sufficiently familiar with the text to recognize its ubiquity. This book intends to correct that innocence.

About the Author

I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. received a B.S. and M.A. with Honors from Columbia University. I subsequently accepted a three year terminal appointment from the University of Nebraska where I taught three years. I entered the doctoral program at the University of Illinois where I was State Editor for the Champaign-Urban Courier, taught a variety of courses on literature and advanced English Grammar and studied for my Ph.D. which I received in 1965. I was offered professorships from several universities and accepted an offer from the University of Southern California in the Comparative Literature where I taught for 28 years. During that time I developed a number of courses including a graduate course, "The Rise of the European Vernacular Love Lyric" "Racism and Literature" and "The Bible as Literature," the first such course in the country. Similar course subsequently proliferated in universities around the country.