The Bible Cause John Fa Summary

In The Bible Cause, John Fea explores the American Bible Society (ABS) and the plucky Christians who built and sustained it. Published to coincide with the ABS’s 2016 bicentennial, the book offers a chronological institutional history peppered with quotations from letters written by supporters (and occasionally critics) and tales from agents working across the United States and the globe. At its heart, this book argues that two motivating commitments have driven the history of the ABS. Since its founding in 1816, it has sustained a belief in the power of the Bible to lead people to salvation and has maintained a cultural mandate to build a Christian society in the United States and throughout the world.
Over two centuries, founding fathers, intrepid colporteurs, and savvy businesspeople embraced the ABS’s twin beliefs. In pursuing these goals, the institution worked to transcend traditional denominational barriers, although throughout much of the ABS’s history many members drew the line at including Catholics. The ABS’s commitment to distribute Bibles free from notes or comment consistently exhibited this interdenominational Protestant character. In addition to working across denominational lines, Fea traces how the ABS
For example, debates about slavery and the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy did not rip the society in two because the ABS avoided stepping into the heart of these conflicts. When referencing the ABS’s stance on these significant theological controversies, Fea helpfully notes both the motivations for this equivocation and the consequences of it. He suggests that the society’s persistent commitment to interdenominational work and distributing the Bible as widely as possible led it to forge its own path in an attempt to maintain the broadest constituency