The Social Life of Scriptures
272 pages, 6 x 9
2
Paperback
Release Date:26 Aug 2009
ISBN:9780813546063
Hardcover
Release Date:26 Aug 2009
ISBN:9780813546056
The Social Life of Scriptures
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism
Edited by James Bielo
SERIES:
Signifying on Scriptures
Rutgers University Press
What do Christians do with the Bible? How do theyùindividually and collectivelyùinteract with the sacred texts? Why does this engagement shift so drastically among and between social, historical, religious, and institutional contexts? Such questions are addressed in a most enlightening, engaging, and original way in The Social Life of Scriptures.
Contributors offer a collection of closely analyzed and carefully conducted ethnographic and historical case studies, covering a range of geographic, theological, and cultural territory, including: American evangelicals and charismatics; Jamaican Rastafarians; evangelical and Catholic Mayans; Northern Irish charismatics; Nigerian Anglicans; and Chinese evangelicals in the United States.
The Social Life of Scriptures is the first book to present an eclectic, cross-cultural, and comparative investigation of Bible use. Moreover, it models an important movement to outline a framework for how scriptures are implicated in organizing social structures and meanings, with specific foci on gender, ethnicity, agency, and power.
Bielo's collection is a must for all serious students of Christianity. It puts forth such a simple idea, we have to wonder why it's taken so long for anthropologists to get it: we cannot understand Christianity without understanding 'the social life of Scriptures.' In their detailed analyses, the contributors here make a convincing case.
The essays in this collection explore the multiple contexts in which the Bible is actually read. They make a major contribution to the anthropology of Christianity and to the study of reading and interpretive practices.
An intriguing collection of essays. Those who do believe that the Bible is divine revelation, but who are also willing to study its operation in quotidian real-life situations, should welcome The Social Life of Scriptures.
James S. Bielo is a visiting assistant professor in the department of anthropology at Miami University in Ohio.
Introduction: Encountering Biblicism
The Trouble with Good News
"In the Beginning"
The Man is the Head"
The Word of God and "Our Words"
How Q'eqchi'-Maya Catholics Become Legitimate Interpreters of the Bible
"We Are Anglicans, They Are the Church of England"
Chinese American Christian Women of New England
The Bones Restored to Life:
Textual Ideology, Textual Practice
Revolve, the Biblezine
Understanding the Bible's Influence
The Social Life of the Bible
The Trouble with Good News
"In the Beginning"
The Man is the Head"
The Word of God and "Our Words"
How Q'eqchi'-Maya Catholics Become Legitimate Interpreters of the Bible
"We Are Anglicans, They Are the Church of England"
Chinese American Christian Women of New England
The Bones Restored to Life:
Textual Ideology, Textual Practice
Revolve, the Biblezine
Understanding the Bible's Influence
The Social Life of the Bible
