Humanities librarian and host of *Off the Shelf* William Claspy interviews Case Western Reserve Professor Timothy Beal about his new book *The Rise and Fall of the Bible*. In his book Timothy Beal argues against the idea of a fully consistent and unerring book, the Bible, positing instead a very human volume with all the twists and foibles of the human experience, truly reflecting that human experience. He presents a case for a radical rereading of the text, an honest appreciation of this sacred book.
Timothy Beal is the Florence Harkness Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University. He has published twelve books and many scholarly articles on the cultural history of the Bible, religion and popular culture, and relations between critical theory and academic religious studies. He has also published essays on religion and American culture for The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, and The Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has been featured on national radio shows including NPR’s All Things Considered and The Bob Edwards Show.
William Claspy holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in English from Case Western Reserve University in addition to a Masters in Library Science degree from Kent State University. He has worked for the CWRU University Library since 1988 and is currently the Information Literacy Librarian at the Kelvin Smith Library.