12/29/2023 0 Comments Tidiness in the bible![]() I conclude with some theoretical reflections that build on Jonathan Westin’s “vocabulary of limitations,” which itself draws on the sociology of translation, to suggest that the material dimensions of scriptures in this liminal age highlights the role of these texts as objects which both embody and contribute to social and cultural values. Specific focus is placed on the iconic role of scriptures, an aspect often bound up with issues of materiality. Drawing on the notion of diverse functional dimensions of scriptures, this study highlights the complex way in which the use of sacred texts in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is being affected by the digital turn. This essay explores some of the social and cultural dynamics involved in converting or translating scriptures to digital formats, issues which take on heightened significance because of the sacred status of these. ![]() The “digital turn” witnessed over the past several decades has had a significant impact on the use of sacred texts, although the full extent of these developments is far from settled. Ultimately, Bielo's ethnography sheds much needed light on the power of group Bible study for the ever-evolving shape of American Evangelicalism. ![]() Bielo's approach allows these Evangelical groups to speak for themselves, illustrating Bible study's uniqueness in Evangelical life as a site of open and critical dialogue. Through a close analysis of participants' discourse, Bielo examines the defining themes of group life-from textual interpretation to spiritual intimacy and the rehearsal of witnessing. Bielo draws on over nineteen months of ethnographic work with five congregations to better understand why group Bible study matters so much to Evangelicals and for Evangelical culture. Here they become self-conscious religious subjects, sharing the intimate details of life, interrogating beliefs and practices, and articulating their version of Christian identity and culture. What happens in these groups? How do they help shape the contours of American Evangelical life? While more public forms of political activism have captured popular and scholarly imaginations, it is in group Bible study that Evangelicals reflect on the details of their faith. It will subsequently be applied to explore the relation between the Bible and its concrete materiality with a comparative focus on print and digital versions of the Bible.Įvangelical Bible study groups are the most prolific type of small group in American society, with more than 30 million Protestants gathering every week for this distinct purpose, meeting in homes, churches, coffee shops, restaurants, and other public and private venues across the country. The second part will discuss an analytic model suggested by material religion scholar David Morgan along which a material analysis of religious objects should be developed. Thus the first part of the chapter introduces the frame of material culture studies and the approach to materiality in the study of religion. ![]() The transition from print culture to digital culture has not gone uncontested and the discussions among Christians about the appropriateness of digital Bible media for religious practices points towards a contestation of the materiality of the medium through which God’s Word, and thereby God, is made present to religious practitioners. According to surveys commissioned by the American Bible Society, announcements from big Bible Publishers, and my own observations among contemporary Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians in America, digital Bibles and Bible Apps are on the rise. The chapter addresses the material dimension of the Bible in the discourse and practice of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians.
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