The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism (Signifying on Scriptures) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813546052 ISBN 13: 9780813546056

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2009

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"The Social Life of Scriptures" is the first book to present an eclectic, cross-cultural, and comparative investigation of Bible use. 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. Contributors offer a collection of closely analyzed and carefully conducted ethnographic and historical case studies, covering a range of geographic, theological, and cultural territory.

About the Author:

JAMES S. BIELO is a visiting assistant professor in the department of anthropology at Miami University in Ohio.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0813546052
• ISBN 13: 9780813546056
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Bielo Professor James