Biblical Images in Literature

Thomas Babington Macaulay asserts in the essay “On John Dryden” that the “English Bible, a book which, if anything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.” To some people, even among learned cultures, owning a Bible appears to have more relevance than reading a Bible. In this program, Dr. Booker T. Anthony delights and entertains the studious reader of the Bible by referencing a number of time-honored literary texts that reveal allusions to the Bible. Ultimately, he creates an appreciation for the Bible itself as a literary text to be studied for analysis and aesthetics. Anthony examines classics including, but not limited to, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, poetry by Countee Cullen, and selected works of Shakespeare.