The Man with the Book; or, The Bible Among the People

Weylland, John Matthias, 1823？-1897Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7
Word count
454K words
Chapters
46

Tags

English Originals Religion Social ObservationPortrait GalleryFate and FortuneHumanistic CareIntellectual EnlightenmentPopular Narrative19th CenturyCultural Change

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Man with the Book; or, The Bible Among the People. by John Matthias WeyllandAuthor: Weylland, John Matthias, 1823?-1897,Language: English, Class: BV: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Practical theology, Worship, Release Date: Dec 17, 2011

Editor's review

The Man with the Book; or, The Bible Among the People is an 1870s work by the English author John Matthias Weylland, classified under practical theology and worship, and concerned with the spread and influence of the Bible among ordinary people. Judging by its title and classification, it belongs more to the tradition of Victorian popular religious writing and missionary narrative than to academic exegesis, focusing on how the Bible entered daily reading, family life, and community life. The public-domain electronic edition from Project Gutenberg makes this rarely reprinted text accessible again, and for those studying nineteenth-century British religious publishing, lay reading culture, and the evangelical movement, it is a meaningful piece of supporting evidence. The book likely contains character stories, observations, and exhortatory narrative, and reads with a distinctly period voice. Today it is best read as a historical document rather than a contemporary devotional guide, with attention to its narrative strategies and period limitations, while also appreciating how people of the time saw the relationship between "the Book" and "the people."

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the table of contents and preface to determine whether the book is observational narrative or exhortatory discourse
  2. Note the historical background as you read, distinguishing the nineteenth-century context from contemporary issues
  3. Read it alongside contemporary missionary biographies or histories of religious publishing

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46

FAQ

Is this book a scholarly study or a popular work? Judging by its classification and title, it is closer to nineteenth-century popular religious writing and observational narrative than to a scholarly monograph with rigorous annotation. It should be read as a period document rather than a contemporary academic reference.
What is the core theme discussed in the book? From the title and classification, the core is the spread and influence of the Bible among ordinary people, involving aspects such as reading, preaching, and the practice of faith. For the specific chapter contents, refer to the actual table of contents of the electronic text; it is advisable to download it and browse the contents before deciding how to read.
Is the author information reliable? The entry gives the author as John Matthias Weylland, with dates marked as 1823?–1897, the question mark indicating uncertainty about the birth year. This is common in public-domain bibliographic records; readers should note the uncertainty when citing and should not add unverified biographical details.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Weylland, John Matthias, 1823？-1897 Author · British

John Matthias Weylland (1823?–1897) was a British religious writer. Public information about his life is limited, and even his birth year survives only with a question mark, so it cannot be firmly established. He is remembered today mainly for his book The Man with the Book or, The Bible Among the People. The work takes the London City Mission as its subject, recording the experiences and encounters of missionaries as they distributed and expounded the Bible among the people of the city; it is thus a documentary account of the nineteenth-century British urban missionary movement. Books of this kind were usually addressed to ordinary readers, written in a plain style and attentive to concrete scenes and the words and deeds of individuals, combining religious exhortation with reportage. They offer later readers firsthand material for understanding missionary activity and social life in London at the time. One work by him is held in the collection.