English

Noun

bibliolatry ‎(usually uncountable, plural bibliolatries)

1. fundamentalism, the belief in the literal truth of the Bible
   • 1992, Frederick Burwick, Poetic Madness and the Romantic Imagination, page 68:

     "bibliolatry" (the fundamentalist insistence on the literal truth of "the Bible as the Word of God")

   • 1972, John Hoyles, The edges of Augustanism: the aesthetics of spirituality in Thomas Ken, John Byrom and William Law, page 97:

     in subsequent poems [Byrom] coins the word "bibliolatry" to characterize Warburton's literalism. […] The exponents of bibliolatry rely on the letter and make the spirit dependent on the letter

2. excessive reverence of the Bible, Qur'an, or other book
   • 1909, James Allanson Picton, Man and the Bible: A Review of the Place of the Bible in Human History, page 270:

     the danger of bibliolatry is only too apparent in the contemptuous references often made by Christian authorities to the uselessness of pagan literature since access to the Bible had been secured by the Church.

3. worship of the Bible or other book
   • 1991, Moisés Silva, God, language, and Scripture: reading the Bible in the light of general linguistics, page 38:

     they are also committing "bibliolatry" by putting the Bible where God alone belongs

   • 2008, Michael J. Cook, Modern Jews Engage the New Testament: Enhancing Jewish Well-being in a Christian Environment, page 267:

     Some sectors of the religious world have been accused […] of "bibliolatry," that is, valuing their Bible itself so highly that they are almost guilty of idolatry.

Derived terms

• bibliolater
• bibliolatrist
• bibliolatrous

Translations