我对这个课题的兴趣始于早年时代,当时我还是个年轻讲师,讲授弥尔顿,撰写有关布莱克的论文;即使按英国文学的标准,达两位作家都特别富于《圣经》格调。我很快意识到,一个治英语文学的学生倘若不懂《圣经》便会对自己所读作品的许多内容迷惑不解;孜孜以求的学生会继续错误地揣度其含义,甚至误解其意思。因此,我主动开设了一门“英语圣经”的课程作为英语文学的学习指南,同时我自己也以此作为研习它的最有效的途径。我最初的目标仅仅是向学生提供关于《圣经》的知识,足以让他们明白它对文学产生了什么样的影响。这难免成为一门“脚注” My interest in the subject began in my early years when I was a young lecturer, teaching Milton and writing about Blake; even both, according to British literary standards, were particularly biblical in style. I quickly realized that a student who mastered English literature would have been puzzled by many of the content of his reading if he did not understand the Bible. Speculated students would continue to erroneously speculate on what they mean or even misunderstand. Therefore, I took the initiative to open a “Bible in English” course as a guide to learning English literature, and I myself used it as the most effective way to study it. My initial goal was simply to provide students with knowledge of the Bible enough to understand what impact it had on literature. This inevitably becomes a “footnote”