The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism

by Brian Malley, Jon Bialecki (Contributor), Professor Erika Muse (Contributor)

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, 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.

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a wide-ranging collection of essays that deal with how people actually use the Bible in contemporary concrete reality. Perhaps the most interesting essay is how the Bible is used among Anglicans in their current debate on homosexuality. The author points out that not many specific scriptures are discussed, but much attention is given to "scripture" in general. In brief, conservatives give attention to content, and liberals context.

These folks in this volume are on to something that we in biblical studies need to attend to.