Literature banned on religious grounds has been in effect for thousands of years. In Athens, around 5th century, the treatise of Protagoras was singled out as offensive. The first sentence of his treatise read, ” Concerning the gods I am not able to know either that they do exist or that they do no exist (www.tertullian.org, December 2, 2003). Protagoras was exiled and all copies were of his treatise were publicly burned. Socrates was condemned to death for similar thinking. His accusation was, “firstly, of denying the gods recognized by the state and introducing new divinities, and, secondly of corrupting the young. (Haight, p.1, 1978).” In 360 B.C., Plato wrote about his ideal Republic: “Our first business will be to supervise the making of fables and legends; rejecting all which are unsatisfactory… (www.firstamendmentcenter.org December 2, 2003).” In the Roman Empire, the state and its magistrates officially controlled the religion. Livy suggests that before 186 B.C. the senate collected and burned books about soothsaying. Rome also attempted to censor The Odyssey because it portrayed Greek ideals of freedom which were a danger to Rome.
The earliest book manuscripts, such as those found in Rome, Greece and China, were single or double copies, and once burned were gone forever. With the advent of the printing press in 1450 however, book circulation rose. Book burning became more symbolic than useful. Censorship was not limited to burning, and usually the publisher was prosecuted first. Only twenty years after Johann Gutenberg’s invention, an official censorship office was opened in Germany. England’s Henry VIII created a similar system that required all publications to be submitted to the Crown. In 1535, French king Francis I issued an edict that outlawed book printing altogether. The Roman Catholic Church created the first list of prohibited books called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum or Index of Prohibited Books in 1559. The Index served as a guide to secular censors who decided what could be printed. The Index continued to accrue titles over the centuries until it was retired in 1966 with 5,000 titles. The Spanish Church and the Irish Church both created their own lists, which were subsequently retired in the late 1960s.
The Bible in its many version and translations, has a long history of being banned and burned. In the year 553, Roman Emperor Justinian forbade the use of the Hebrew Midrash, and granted exclusive use to the Greek and Latin versions of the Bible. William Tyndale began translating the New Testament in 1525 much to the chagrin of the English clergy. It became the first printed book banned in England, and it was often burned. Because of continued pressure to allow an English Bible, Henry VIII eventually allowed the Matthew’s Bible, a collaboration of Tyndale and John Rogers’ work. In 1555, Queen Mary commanded, that no manner of persons presume to bring into this realm any…books, papers, etc. in the name of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Miles Coverdale, Eramus, Tyndale, etc. or any like books containing false doctrines against
the Catholic faith (Haight, p. 4, 1978).
In Germany, Martin Luther’s 1534 translation of the Bible was considered heretical and burned by the Church. The Wicked Bible, called so because of the accidental omission of the word “not” in the seventh commandment, was published in 1631. In 1900, Pope Leo XIII decreed that the vernacular translations of the Bible were only permitted if approved by the Holy See. (Haight, p.4, 1978).
The Talmud has been banned for many centuries. During the Middle Ages the Catholic Church began singling out circumspect books. In 1239, Pope Gregory IX ordered all Jewish books burned. By 1244, the Talmud was being burned by the wagonload in Paris. In 1415, Pope Benedict XII decreed all copies of the Talmud be sent to bishops for preservation. Jews were forbidden to have any copies of material considered to be “antagonistic” to Christianity. A brief respite from publishing bans was given by Pope Leo X in 1520, but by 1555 the ban was back in place and Jews were under pain of death to surrender all materials blaspheming Christ. In Italy some 12, 000 volumes were destroyed (Bald, 1998, p.277).
The Talmud was on the original list of the Church’s Index. A revision was later added in 1564 by the Council of Trent that read, “all works of Jewish doctrine were banned, except those permitted by the pope after the Jewish community offered a substantial financial “gift.” (Bald, 1998, p.277).” Western Christianity attitudes towards the Talmud changed after the Second Vatican Council in 1965 that emphasized the common connection between Christianity and Jews.
The Koran or Qur’an is the sacred book of the Muslim religion. Most Muslims regard any translation of the Koran as imperfect. It could only be reproduced in handwritten form. The first official Arabic version was not released until 1925. During the Middle Ages, the Crusades against the Arab nations bred an intense hostility between Christianity and Islam. An early translation was made into the Latin around 1141 by Peter the Venerable, the abbot of Cluny. By 1215, the Church considered Muslims to be infidels and legislation was passed that restricted Muslims in Christendom. The next Arabic publishing of the Koran in Europe was in 1530 and it too was burned. In the late 17th century, Ibrahim Müteferrika secured permission from the Turkish sultan to print books, but not the Koran. There are currently 43 translations of the Koran, all unauthorized. The Koran and the Bible are the mostly widely read sacred texts. More portions of the Koran are memorized than any other similar writing (Bald, 1998, p.139-141 )
In the Soviet Union, the Talmud, the Bible and the Koran were all banned. “[Soviet] government directives to libraries stated that religiously dogmatic books such as the Gospels, the Koran and the Talmud could only remain in large libraries, accessible to students of history, but had to be removed from the smaller ones” (Bald, 1998, p.140).
Banning on religious content has several aspects and has always been judged by contemporary ideas. In 1632, an astronomer named Galileo Galilei wrote Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Galileo was a supporter of Copernicus’ heliocentric theory, that the earth and other celestial bodies revolved around the sun. The book was written in the manner of a conversation between three people: “a Florentine who believes in the Copernican system, an Aristotelian supporter of the geocentric theory and a Venetian aristocrat for whose benefit they propose their arguments” (Karolides,1999, p.198). The book was structured in a way that complied with the Church’s order that Galileo present the heliocentric theory as a mathematical concept rather than a “physical reality”. It was obvious within the text, however, that Galileo believed the heliocentric theory to be correct. This work was crucial in establishing modern scientific methods. “First, statements and hypotheses about nature must always be based on observation, rather than on received authority; and second, natural processes can best be understood if represented in mathematical terms” (Karolides, 1999, p.198).
Galileo published his book after repeated warnings not to publish Copernican theories. He wisely added a preface by a Vatican theologian that dismissed the book as an intellectual exercise. It was unsuccessful in convincing the pope. Galileo was soon incarcerated in Rome for heresy. He recanted his book and “heresy” on the morning of June 22, 1633. The book was banned, and Galileo was placed under house arrest. In 1824, a Roman astronomer named Canon Settele published a paper on modern scientific theories. The Church finally accepted “the general opinion of modern astronomers” (Karolides, 1999, p.200). It was not until the Index of 1835, however, that the names of Galileo, Kepler and Copernicus were removed.
In Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, the character Fagin is described as “The Jew” and repeatedly referred to as “The Jew” throughout the book.
Fagin’s red hair and beard were commonly associated with ancient images of the devil. He has a hooked nose, shuffling gait, a long gabardine coat…and is portrayed like Satan, as serpent-like, gliding like “some loathsome reptile engendered in the slime and darkness through which he moved” (Bald,1998, p.181).
A revised edition of Oliver Twist was released in 1867, in which Dickens eliminated the references to Fagin, “The Jew” and replaced it with “he” or “Fagin”. In 1949, Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York protested the use of material used in high school literature. They claimed their children should get an education free of religious bias, citing Fagin from Oliver Twist and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. In Rosenberg v. Board of Education of City of New York the Kings County Supreme Court decided that the works would not be banned from the classrooms. The judge’s final decision was, Except where a book has been maliciously written for the apparent purpose of fomenting a bigoted and intolerant hatred against a particular racial or religious group, public interest in a free and democratic society does not warrant or encourage the suppression of any book…the removal of books will contribute nothing toward the diminution of anti-religious feeling (Bald,1998, p.182)
More current books have been banned by the Catholic Church. In Infallible? An Inquiry Hans Küng questioned the infallibility of the Roman Catholic Church. Küng was a Catholic theologian, and a priest which seemed to make the matter worse. According to doctrine, “infallibility is invested in the pope when he speaks as the head of the church on matters of faith and morals” (Bald,1998, p.121). King argued that there should allowed room for errors, and the church would still prevail. He criticized Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on birth control Humanae Vitae. He claimed that the gospel of Christ is ignored and papal tradition is more important. Kung writes there should be a leadership in which, “the pope exists for the Church and not the Church for the pope”. When his book was published in 1970, it created tremendous controversy. In response to his book , the Catholic Church published a “Declaration Against Certain Errors of the Present Day.” It confirmed and reestablished the pope and bishops’ infallibility.
As further punishment, Küng was barred from representing the Church, because he was “causing confusion” among believers. He was also barred from teaching Catholic doctrine, and Catholic institutions were banned from hiring him. Küng continues as a priest, and a director for the Institute for Ecumenical Research (Bald, 1998, p.123).
The first book burning in America took place in 1650 when a religious pamphlet published by William Pynchon was burned in the Boston Marketplace. Modern American censorship was formed by Anthony Comstock who founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1872. The Comstock Law was created a year later after Comstock pressured Congress for “morals, not art and literature.” The Comstock Law prohibited the mailing of materials found to be “lewd, indecent, filthy or obscene.” Because of the law, 3,500 people were prosecuted and 350 books were banned. This included classics like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Aristophanes’ Lysistra. Future classics by authors Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and James Joyce, among others, would be banned also. (www.firstamendmentcenter.org, December 2, 2003).
Under the guidance of Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) party, book burning became a powerful and frequent symbol of their doctrine. On May 10, 1933 students gathered 25, 000 volumes by Jewish authors and burned them in front of Berlin University. Among the subsequent authors burned were: Jack London, Albert Einstein, Upton Sinclair, Ernest Hemingway and Heinrich Mann. Similar demonstrations followed. Students began raiding bookstores to find material for the bonfires and had to be stopped from pillaging the university libraries. In Salzburg, 15,000 people attended a “purification bonfire” of 2,000 volumes many of which were Jewish and Catholic books. It began with a schoolboy throwing a lighted book of Chancellor Schuschnigg’s Three Times Austria on the pyre. During the burning the crowd joined together to sing, “Deutschland Über Alles” (Haight, 1978, p.106).
The current argument takes place in school libraries and in curriculum. Most controversial books are challenged,
because they contain profanity or violence, sex or sex education, homosexuality, witchcraft and the occult, “secular humanism” or “new age” philosophies, portrayals of rebellious children, or “politically incorrect”, racist or sexist language (www.firstamendmentcenter.org., December 2, 2003).
In the ten years between 1990 and 2000, out of 6, 364 challenges, “1,607 were for sexually explicit content, 1, 427 were for offensive language, 1, 256 were considered unsuited to age group, 737 were considered violent, 419 for promoting a religious viewpoint.” Of those, “seventy-one percent of the challenges were to materials in schools or school libraries, another twenty-four were to material in public libraries. Sixty percent of the challenges were brought by parents, fifteen percent by patrons, and nine percent by administration” (www.ala.org, December 2, 2003).
In a case similar to Rosenburg, Parents of New York United protested a group of books they found objectionable. These books were found in the school libraries. In most cases when a parent lobbied a complaint, a committee gathered to review the book. Instead, the school board simply removed the books without a committee. A later committee appointed by the superintendent argued that the books should be reviewed first, and a few should be placed back on the shelf. The notion was rejected however, and the books remained off the shelf. Steven Pico, a student of the district, sued the board in U.S. District Court claiming they had First Amendment rights. The district court found in favor of the board, claiming “respect for the traditional values of the community and deference to a school board’s substantial control over educational content.” An appeal was sent to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which sent it back to the district court. The school board sent the case to the Supreme Court.
In a close 5-4 decision for the students, Justice William Brennan reasoned that the ruling was limited to the removal of books and did not extend to the acquisition of books. “Brennan also recognized that local school boards had “broad discretion in the management of school affairs and…if a board acted solely upon the ‘educational suitability’ of the books in question or solely because the books were ‘pervasively vulgar” such actions would not be unconstitutional (www.firstamendmentcenter.org, December 2, 2003).
In modern times, banning for religious content carries the same long-standing traits. The most common examples are using the Lord’s name in vain, promoting anti-Christianity viewpoints, and defamation of the Church. The use of magic and descriptions of the occult are also frowned upon. Satanic Verses has been banned because of its anti-Muslim sentiment. All three parts of the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien have been burned as “Satanic”. John Steinbeck’s works especially have been cast aside because they curse the Lord’s name, such as in East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath.
One of the most controversial books in recent times is the Harry Potter series. Their author, J.K Rowling has been called Satan renamed by numerous religious groups. The series has been condemned because of its presentation of witchcraft. It is also accused of portraying evil as good and glorifying rebellion against authority.
Book banning on religious grounds is possibly the oldest form of book banning. Since the early Greeks, to the Conquistadors, to Hitler’s Third Reich, the human race has questioned each other’s beliefs. Power has lent one party dominion over another, power that has shaped the course of history. Many human lives have been lost, as well as useful, irretrievable books. And yet, conversely, what has been protected and what has been saved by book banning?
Reference:
- Bald, M. (1998). Banned Books Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds. Wachsberger, K. (Ed.).New York: Facts on File, Inc.. Forbes, Clarence. (2003, December 2). Roman book burning. [On-line]. Available: www.tertullian.org/artibles/forbes_books_for_the_burning.htm Haight, A. & Grannis, C. (1978). Banned Books 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D. New York: R.R Boweker Company. Karolides, N. & Bald, M. & Sova, D. (1999). 100 Banned Books. New York: Checkmark Books. Mulally, Claire. (2003, December 2). Book banning. [On-Line]. Available: www.firstamendmentcenter.org/speech/libraries/topic.aspx?topic=banned_books Thomas, C. (1983). Book Burning. Westchester: Crossway Books. Unknown. (2003, December 2). The Book of common prayer. [On-Line]. Available: www.justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/.html Unknown. (2003, December 2). The Children of Gebelawi. [On-Line]. Available: www.egypt.vacationbookreview.com/egypt_91.html Unknown. (2003, December 2). Thomas paine. [On-Line]. Available: libertyonline.hypermall.com/Paine?AOR-Frame.html Unknown. (2003, December 2). Why books are banned. [On-Line]. Available: www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Our_Association/Offices?Intellectual_Freedom3/Banned_B
