“Fictions of God is a bold work of scholarship that reenergizes—and should transform—the study of the Bible and literature. Magarik’s prose is as lively as it is learned, and the provocative ambition of his argument, that Protestant commentators invented the biblical narrator, makes this book not only fun to read but essential for anyone interested in religion, secularization, and literary modes of discipline and critique. I learned something on every page and will be grappling with the profound implications of this work for years to come.”

Constance Furey, Indiana University

“Writing as both a literary scholar and an intellectual historian, Magarik proposes a compelling revision of how the emergence of secularism in the early modern period is understood. Surprisingly but persuasively, he shows the seeds of secularism in Protestant biblical commentary and then in English poetic treatments of the Bible, as readers of the Bible saw in the text unreliable narrators, irony, and even free indirect discourse. This book offers a fresh perspective on the early modern period.”

Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley