What is it about the Book? Semantic and Material Dimensions in the Mediation of the Word of God

Abstract

When the Christian Bible is referred to as the 'Word of God', the common understanding is that this refers to its textual content. There are, however, a variety of other uses made of the bible that point to an understanding of the Word of God as not just the textual content but also the material book itself. This article explores a number of uses of the physical bible as an instrument of spiritual mediation or power that have been practised since the early days of Christianity to the present time. Some of the understandings underlying these material practices are explored, along with differences in the religious-cultural context that sustain these different views, including the differences in religious hermeneutics between the oral and written word, the importance of the concept of the book in Christian identity, the relationship of fetishism and theological understanding, and cultural differences in understanding the relationship between textual and material signification.The Christian Bible is a book compilation of sixty-six historical documents which holds a distinctive place within Christianity as 'The Word of God'. While the specific meaning of this attribution is a matter of significant dispute, the most common reference is to the semantic content Studies in World Christianity 17.2 (2011): [175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187][188][189][190][191][192][193]

Ideology and Bible Translation: Can Biblical Performance Criticism Help?

“…But rather than seeing this as unique to Africa, Horsfield and Asamoah-Gyadu (2011) show that the materiality of the Bible as a curative and protective tool was referenced positively by church fathers such as John Chrysostom and Augustine. The authors go on to discuss the rationalist philosophical position of the post-Enlightenment West which views the material text as valid only in so far as it points to a reality beyond itself.…”

“…And even though I recognize that BPC offers a number of theoretical advantages from the perspective of folklore studies (Bauman and Briggs 1990), translation studies (Bermann 2014), and biblical studies (Maxey and Wendland 2012), I also recognize that many Bikɔɔm church leaders have resisted Bible engagement strategies that they perceive as exclusively oral, strategies that effectively isolate and marginalize them in a pre-modern, non-progressive state (Esala 2013, 315). 3 Further, some Ghanaian Christians resist exclusively semantic approaches to engaging biblical discourses that discount material uses of the Bible in religious life (Horsfield and Asamoah-Gyadu 2011). For reasons like these, a socially engaged scholar (West 1997, 99–100) such as myself needs to explore what BPC looks like in the Bikɔɔm context of Bible engagement practices at the local and national levels in Ghana.…”

“….” The group all said, “Tablet!” and laughed, but with a smile on his face, he went on, “I am very serious.” His comment not only reveals the semiotic link between stone and electronic tablets, but may also reflect a realist philosophical outlook expressed in their church’s sacred material practice. Horsfield and Asamoah-Gyadu (2011) show how the African use of the book or even of the computer tablet could be compared to the way the ancient Greek cultured elite and illiterate alike were drawn to the materiality of the codex.…”