Materializing the Bible: Scripture, Sensation, Place

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James S. Bielo (Miami University, USA) Amy R Whitehead (Oxford Brookes University UK)

Materializing the Bible

Scripture, Sensation, Place

James S. Bielo (Miami University, USA), Amy R Whitehead (Oxford Brookes University UK), Birgit Meyer (University of Utrecht the Netherlands) , Crispin Paine (Ucl UK)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
23 March 2023

Material culture; Social & cultural anthropology

Series: Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion

What happens when the written words of biblical scripture are transformed into experiential, choreographed environments? To answer this question, anthropologist James Bielo explores a diverse range of practices and places that “materialize the Bible,” including gardens, theme parks, shrines, museums, memorials, exhibitions, theatrical productions, and other forms of replication. Integrating ethnographic, archival, and mass media data, case studies focus primarily on U.S. Christianity from the late 19th-century to the present.

Composed as 20 short chapters that may be read in any order, the book is divided into three sections. Section I, “Variations on Replication,” analyzes examples that recontextualize elements from the (actual or imagined) biblical past. Section II, “The Power of Nature,” turns to the natural world associated with Christian scripture and how it is mobilized as a privileged media. Section III, “Choreographing Experience,” examines lived interactions with the affordances of materializing the Bible.

Bielo argues that materializing the Bible works as an authorizing practice to intensify intimacies with scripture and circulate potent ideologies. Performed through the sensory experience of bodies, physical technologies, and infrastructures of place, Bielo illustrates how this phenomenon is always, ultimately, about expressions of power.

By: James S. Bielo (Miami University USA)
Edited by: Amy R Whitehead (Oxford Brookes University UK), Birgit Meyer (University of Utrecht the Netherlands), Crispin Paine (Ucl UK), David Morgan (Duke University USA)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: NIPPOD
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350260252
ISBN 10: 1350260258
Series: Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 23 March 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Part 1: Variations on Replication 1. 1:1 2. Miniaturizing 3. Re-Enacting 4. Imagineering 5. Plastic Jesus 6. Ways of Remaining Part 2: The Power of Nature 7. Flora 8. Fauna 9. Ingesting the Word 10. How Stones Do Things Part 3: Choreographing Experience Circulation 11. Miracles and Lavatories 12. Greetings From... 13. Like-able Me, Like-able There Design 14. In Place, In Motion 15. Interactivity 16. Engulfed I 17. Engulfed II Classification 18. In the Garden 19. Rev. Ruth's Yard Poetics 20. Four Crosses Over Waterbury Conclusion Bibliography Index

James S. Bielo is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA. He is the author of four books, most recently Ark Encounter: The Making of a Creationist Theme Park (2018), and is the co-founder and lead curator for the digital scholarship project Materializing the Bible.

Reviews for Materializing the Bible: Scripture, Sensation, Place

James Bielo has a gift for explaining complicated concepts in a highly accessible manner, which is on display throughout this book. The research process is impressive and the focus on materializing the biblical text is superb as it creates innovative links between scholarship across adjacent fields, including art history, history, folklore studies, tourism studies, and anthropology. * Hillary Kaell, Associate Professor of Anthropology, McGill University, Canada *