In a review of George Steiner’s latest book in the May 2 TLS, David Martin speculates on the connection between biblical exegesis and the development of intellectual toughness. For Jews and Scots, he says, “there are the intellectual resources built up by strenuous exercises, in wresting sense from sometimes recalcitrant texts. Perhaps tussling with scriptures and detailed prescriptions is most arduous among Jews, but one finds a similar intellectual resourcefulness among Scots and other ‘bible black’ cultures.” He suggests that “feeding on the Word breeds verbal dexterity and furious thought about intractable problems.”
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