Gordis, Lisa M. 1966(?)-

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Gordis, Lisa M. 1966(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1966. Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1988; University of California at Los Angeles, M.A., 1990, Ph.D., 1993.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027. E-mail—lgordis@barnard.edu.

CAREER:

Columbia University, Barnard College, New York, NY, associate professor of English.

WRITINGS:

Opening Scripture: Bible Reading and Interpretive Authority in Puritan New England, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2003.

Contributor to various publications, including the Journal of Religion and Journal of Unitarian Universalist History. Editorial board member of Early American Literature.

SIDELIGHTS:

Lisa M. Gordis earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, then went on to earn her master's degree and doctorate at the University of California at Los Angeles. A writer and educator, she serves on the faculty of Barnard College at Columbia University, where she is an associate professor of English. Gordis's primary areas of research and academic interest include American literature, particularly the writings of the Quakers and Puritans. She teaches classes in early American literature, women's writing from the colonial era, and American culture, among others. She serves on the editorial board of Early American Literature, and is a regular contributor to periodicals including Journal of Religion and the Journal of Unitarian Universalist History. Gordis's first book, Opening Scripture: Bible Reading and Interpretive Authority in Puritan New England, was published in 2003.

In Opening Scripture, Gordis examines the assumptions of the early American settlers, Puritans from England who intended to come to the New World and establish a society of religious individuals who used the true precepts of the Bible as their guidelines. None of the individuals involved took into account the possibility that there might be disagreement regarding what those precepts were and what they meant, as they were convinced that anyone who read the Bible would interpret it in the same manner, agreeing completely with what their foundation should be. Over the course of the book, Gordis addresses this situation, looking in particular at how, even with a basic understanding and a shared purpose, the Puritans could disagree regarding the meaning of the scriptures. Puritans believed that their religious leaders, ministers who led them in prayer, served as a sort of conduit for the Holy Spirit, and because of this, whatever interpretation or explanation of scripture the Puritans received from their spiritual leader was assumed to be accurate. The parishioners themselves had their own techniques to use while reading the Bible in order to glean the true meaning from the text. Gordis delves into the spiritual writings of the Puritans of the day, including a broad spectrum, and illustrating the ways in which several learned individuals, each of them following the proscribed system for reading their Bibles, still managed to come up with different interpretations of the text, in some cases wildly different. And that only took into account the ministers. Individuals were expected to read their Bibles on their own between church attendance, and to develop their own understanding of what the scriptures said. However, this also led to a myriad of different interpretations, as just as the religious scholars came up with different meanings, so did the individuals who were attempting to read and understand on their own.

Once the Puritans finally admitted to themselves that it was impossible for everyone to read their Bibles and glean the exact same interpretation, the religion itself began to alter. Ministers began claiming a measure of autonomy and individuality, stressing their own varied but still officially sanctioned interpretations and deriding any other versions based on interpretations of the general population. Government overrode religion in terms of controlling the masses, and ultimately the faith itself became more stable. Michael P. Winship, writing for Church History, found the book "a wide-ranging and in places pathbreaking study of practices of biblical reading and expression in early New England." In a contribution for the Modern Language Review, Roger Pooley remarked that "this book will not revolutionize our picture of New England Puritanism, but it is a discriminating, judicious, and well-conceived account." Evan Haefeli, in a review for the Journal of Religion, commented that "what Gordis has charted in this careful study is one important part of the transformation of Puritanism from a voluntary religion within the Church of England to an established faith as the Congregational Church."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, July 1, 2003, L.B. Tipson, review of Opening Scrip-ture: Bible Reading and Interpretive Authority in Puritan New England.

Church History, September 1, 2006, Michael P. Winship, review of Opening Scripture, p. 681.

Journal of American History, March 1, 2004, Peter J. Thuesen, review of Opening Scripture, p. 1422.

Journal of Religion, July 1, 2004, Evan Haefeli, review of Opening Scripture, p. 460.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, September 1, 2005, David D. Hall, review of Opening Scripture, p. 922.

Modern Language Review, April 1, 2005, Roger Pooley, review of Opening Scripture, p. 481.

Modern Philology, November 1, 2005, Jonathan Beecher Field, review of Opening Scripture, p. 253.

New England Quarterly, June 1, 2005, Elisa New, review of Opening Scripture, p. 301.