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The Social Life of Scriptures
Price: $28.95
Subtitle:
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism
Edited
and with an
Introduction by James S. Bielo
Subject: Christianity,
Anthropology
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-4606-3
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4605-6
Pages:
272 pages
Publication Date: September 2009
Series:
Signifying (on )Scriptures
Praise for The Social Life of Scriptures
"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."—Matthew Engelke, London School of Economics
"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."—Vincent Crapanzano,
author of Serving the Word:
Literalism in America from the Pulpit to the Bench
Description:
What do Christians do with the Bible? How do
they—individually and collectively—
interact 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.
About the Author:
James S. Bielo
is a visiting assistant professor in the department of anthropology at
Miami University in Ohio.
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Price: $28.95
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