Table Of ContentFrauke Uhlenbruch
The Nowhere Bible
Studies of the Bible
and Its Reception
Edited by
Dale C. Allison, Jr., Christine Helmer,
Thomas Römer, Choon-Leong Seow,
Barry Dov Walfish, Eric Ziolkowski
Volume 4
Frauke Uhlenbruch
The Nowhere
Bible
Utopia, Dystopia, Science Fiction
ISBN 978-3-11-041154-6
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-041417-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-041427-1
ISSN 2195-450X
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Preface
ThisbookisbasedonmydoctoralresearchwhichwassponsoredbytheCentre
forSociety,Religion,andBelief(SRB)attheUniversityofDerby,whereIspenta
wonderful four years and learned a lot, among others about hard interdiscipli-
narity. Iexplained my project tomany psychologists,biologists, and engineers,
andourconversationsoftenfoundcommongroundinthatobscureplacewhere
conceptsmoreorlessconverged:StarTrek,zombiefilms,andmutantantsfrom
planet X. It is a luxurious challenge to have to explain (and justify) a research
projecttothoseoutsideofahome-discipline,whodonottakeaspecificdiscipli-
naryconsensusforgranted.Hence,informedandinspiredbytheinterdisciplina-
ryenvironmentinwhichIwrotemostofit,thisbookismeantnotjustforthose
whoareprimarily interestedin the Bible, and not justfor those primarily inter-
estedinutopiaorsciencefiction,andIreallyhopeIhavesomehowmanagednot
to bore,underwhelm or overwhelm either camp.
IwanttothankDavidChalcraft,whosupervisedmyPhDresearch,notonly
butalsoforthatonetimewhenIfeltsoterriblyaudaciousforputtingascience
fictionreferenceintoafootnoteofanearlydraftandhiscommentinthemargin
said “Ok,but what about Cybermen?”.
I would also like to thank Ehud Ben Zvi for comments and feedback along
theway,andforencouragingthegeekapproach.IanD.Wilson hascommented
on ideas,papers, and drafts, for which also many heartfelt thanks.
I am indebted to those colleagues and friends working in SRB when I was
there – Kristin Aune, Simon Speck, Paul Weller, and Andrew Wilson – and of
course,thefantasticcommunitiesofinspiringjuniorresearchersattheUniversi-
tyofDerby,theUniversityofSheffield, andattheEuropeanAssociationofBib-
lical Studies.
Contents
Fragmented Allusions 1
Texts and Concepts 6
. Utopia, dystopia, science fiction 6
. Utopian thought, utopian and science fiction theory 11
. Social sciences and philosophy 15
. Bible 18
. Bible as utopia 19
Utopia as an Ideal Type 23
. The problem with defining utopia, dystopia, and science fiction 23
. Ideals and ideal type 25
. Max Weber and beyond 30
. Family resemblances and anachronisms 35
. Using an ideal type to read utopia in the Bible 36
. The concept of utopia for use with the Bible 38
. Creation and disruption of links between fiction and reality 43
. The impact of dating a utopia 45
. Features of literary utopias: fiction, history, place 46
.. Realistic proposal or fiction 46
.. Religion versus utopia 50
.. The utopian pun 54
Utopia and Reality 57
. “Zero Worlds” 57
. Relationship between the fiction and the author’s reality 60
. Perceiving different utopias 63
. Can utopias be understood without the reality behind them? 68
. Reverse-engineering utopia 70
.. Game rules 70
.. The abstraction’s independent meaning 71
.. Retrograde analysis of utopia 72
Numbers 13 and Its Reception Read as Utopia and Dystopia 75
. Reality and utopia in William Bradford’s reading of Numbers 13 76
.. Reading Numbers 13 as utopian blueprint 83
VIII Contents
.. Utopia into history: Cotton Mather reads Bradford and Numbers
13 89
.. Estranged biblical utopia 91
. Reality or utopia in maps: Numbers, Ezekiel, and scholarly
reception 93
.. Functions of fictional maps 94
.. Some biblical utopian maps 97
.. The map of Numbers 13:17–26: A utopian map? 101
a All of the land or part of the land? 104
b Returning elsewhere? (vv.25.26) 105
c Difficult representation 106
d Paran or Kadesh 107
e Ṣin and Rĕḥōb, Lĕbōʾ-Ḥămāt 109
f Negeb and Ḥebrôn 110
g ʾEškōl 111
h The telescope effect 113
I Elevated narrators 114
j Moving narrators 115
k Interviewing omniscient locals 117
l Moving protagonists, encounter with locals, and consequences of ex-
ploration in Numbers 13 118
. Ezekiel’s utopian boundaries and Numbers’ boundaries 121
. Implications 123
Utopia and Dystopia 126
. Utopia, dystopia, anti-utopia 126
.. Utopia 126
.. Dystopia 126
.. Anti-utopia 128
.. Form criticism? 129
. Ambiguous utopian and dystopian images in Numbers 13 131
.. Fortified cities: asset and threat 132
.. Eating and being eaten 133
.. Giants’ grapes 135
.. Escaping coercion 135
.. YHWH as utopian/dystopian leader 138
. Simultaneous utopia and dystopia 141
.. Cyclical relationship of utopias and dystopias 142
.. Simultaneous “Ustopia” 144
.. Neutral spaces 146
Contents IX
.. Utopian readers 148
. Excursus: Fantasy 152
.. Elements of the fantastic 152
.. World-building the Promised Land 157
Science Fiction and the Bible 160
. The strange text 160
. Science fiction theory and the Bible 161
.. Darko Suvin: the “novum” 162
.. Raymond Williams: types of transformations 166
.. Margaret Atwood: mythological questions 168
.. Eric Rabkin: the narrative world 169
.. Roland Boer: alternate world 170
.. Discontinuities 171
. Science fiction in Numbers 13: disposable characters, cyborgs, and
first contact 173
.. Red Shirts 174
.. Nephilim as cyborgs 176
.. First contact 180
. A known yet unknown stranger 183
Afterthoughts 192
. Reading with and as utopia 192
. Reading with and asscience fiction 194
Bibliography 197
Index 206
