Item Details

Iconic Books from Below: The Christian Bible and the Discourse of Duct Tape

Issue: Vol 6 No. 1-3 (2010)

Journal: Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts

Subject Areas: Religious Studies Islamic Studies Biblical Studies

DOI: 10.1558/post.v6i1-3.185

Abstract:

Investigating the Christian Bible as “America’s Iconic Book” (following Marty 1982) reveals that this icon is generated and maintained not only through lofty theology and high church rituals, but also through mundane and often invisible biblical practices. By examining how people engage with their personal Bibles, scholars can better understand how status and authority is generated not only through semantic meaning, but also through material and embodied actions. This article looks at one example of this in contemporary American Evangelical Christianity: the display of worn-out Bibles and the discourses that surround the phenomena of duct-taped Bibles.

Author: Dorina Miller Parmenter

View Original Web Page

References :

Abbygale1. 2010. “My AWESOME Bible!” YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uigYic4lH8A. Accessed 13 August 2010.
Allen, Allison Metcalf. 2008. “From One Woman of Faith to Another with Allison Allen.” Women of Faith Association. 27 Februrary. http://www.allisonallen.net/February_27_2008.pdf. Accessed 13 August 2010.
Anna. 2008. Response to “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 14 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
Barna Research. 2004. “Religion Activity Increasing in the West.” Barna Group. 1 March. http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/136-religious-activity-increasing-in-the-west?q=bible+reading. Accessed 13 June 2008.
Beal, Timothy. 2011. The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Bertrand, J. Mark. 2008. “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 13 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
Bielo, James S. 2009a. The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Biblicism. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
———. 2009b. Words Upon the Word: An Ethnography of Evangelical Group Bible Study. New York: New York University Press.
Boone, Kathleen C. 1989. The Bible Tells them So: The Discourse of Protestant Fundamentalism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Boyarin, Daniel. 2004. Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Brett, 2009. “Bible Makeover #1 – My Son’s Bible (Colorful to Camo).” Pastor Brett. 8 September. http://pastorbrett.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/bible-makeover-1-my-sons-bible-colorful-to-camo/. Accessed 5 September 2010.
Carl, Phil. 2006. “Bob’s ‘Duct Tape Bible’: Its wear shows the power of the word.” The Lutheran. October. http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=6080. Accessed 13 August 2010.
David B. 2008. Response to “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 14 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
David T. 2008. Response to “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 14 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
Decree of the Second Council of Nicaea 1890-1900. In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, vol. 14, 549–554. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. [Reprint ed., Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991].
Eastmond, Antony. 2003. “Between Icon and Idol: The Uncertainty of Imperial Images,” In Icon and Word: The Power of Images in Byzantium, edited by Antony Eastmond and Liz James, 73–85. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Encompassed Runner. 2007. “It’s about the Metaphor…” (review). Amazon.7 January. http://www.amazon.com/Duct-Tape-Bible-Thomas-Nelson/dp/0718018249/ref=cm_cr_dp_orig_subj. Accessed 13 August 2010.
Erik. 2009. “Encouraged by my Wife’s Torn Up Bible.” Irish Calvinist. 29 April. http://www.irishcalvinist.com/?p=2820. Accessed 5 September 2010.
Falwell, Jerry, Ed Dobson, and Ed Hindson. 1981. The Fundamentalist Phenomenon. Garden City, NY: Galilee-Doubleday.
Farley, A. J. 2009. “That’s a Funny Name,” Worn Out Bibles: Do you know the real Jesus, or the one you made up?, 10 December. http://wornoutbibles.blogspot.com/2009/12/thats-funny-name.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
Gallup, Alec and Wendy W. Simmons. 2000. “Six in Ten Americans Read the Bible at least Occasionally.” Gallup. 20 October. http://www.gallup.com/poll/2416/Six-Ten-Americans-Read-Bible-Least-Occasionally.aspx. Accessed 17 December 2004.
Gutjahr, Paul C. 2008. “The Bible-zine Revolve and the Evolution of the Culturally Relevant Bible in America.” In Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America, edited by Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer, 326–348. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Haley, Eric, J. 2010. “Bible Post-Op Instructions: How to Care For Your Bible.” Leonard’s Book Restoration Station. 29 July. http://www.leonardsbooks.com/what-we-can-do/bible-care-pages/bible-post-op-instructions/. Accessed 5 September 2010.
Harding, Susan. 2009. “Revolve: The Biblezine: A Transevangelical Text.” In The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Biblicism, edited by James S. Bielo, 176–193. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Havner, Vance. 1986. In The Vance Havner Quote Book, edited by Dennis J. Hester. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Publishing. http://www.wordsearchbible.com/catalog/sample.php?prodid=1929. Accessed 25 December 2010.
Heen, Erik M. 2007. “Bible Reading in North American and Constructivist Learning.” Teaching Theology & Religion 10: 175–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9647.2007.00353.x
Holdrege, Barbara A. 1989. “The Bride of Israel: The Ontological Status of Scripture in the Rabbinic and Kabbalistic Traditions.” In Rethinking Scripture: Essays from a Comparative Perspective, edited by Miriam Levering, 180–261. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Homeland Security Department. 2003. “Preparing Makes Sense: Get Ready Now.” U.S. Department of Homeland Security. http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/Ready_Brochure_Screen_EN_20040129.pdf. Accessed 18 August 2010.
“jeesusteippi.” 2009. Wiktionary. 19 October. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jeesusteippi. Accessed 22 December 2010.
James, Frank. 2003. “Critics unglued by government’s advice to buy duct tape.” Chicago Tribune. 13 February. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-02-13/news/0302130317_1_duct-tape-homeland-security-department-terrorist. Accessed 18 August 2010.
Jessica. 2009. Response to “How to Carry Your Bible.” Bible Design Blog. 4 June. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2009/06/how-to-carry-your-bible.html. Accessed 5 September 2010.
John. 2008. Response to “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 14 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
Kroencke, J. Kent. 2008. “Things you can put duct tape on….” Fear and Trembling. 10 October. http://fearandtrembling.spaces.live.com. Accessed 13 August 2010.
Lombardi, Robert. 2008. Response to “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 14 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
Luke. 2009. “How to make a ‘Duct Tape Bible’ (with my daughters).” YouTube. 22 August. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW3yBFVwuIg&h=f307d&ref=nf. Accessed 11 August 2010.
Malley, Brian. 2004. How the Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press.
Marsden, George M. 1970. Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Marty, Martin. 1982. “America’s Iconic Book.” In Humanizing America’s Iconic Book: Society of Biblical Literature Centennial Addresses 1980, edited by Gene M. Tucker and Douglas A. Knight, 1–23. Chico, CA: Scholars Press.
McCullars, Stan. 2008. Response to “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 14 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
McDannell, Colleen. 1995. Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Mike. 2008. Response to “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 14 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
Misen, Robert. 2010. Response to “How Old’s Your Bible.” Soulpants. 2 May. http://soulpants.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/how-olds-your-bible/. Accessed 13 August 2010.
Morgan, David. 2005. The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mueller, Eric S. 2008. Response to “Does a Trashed Bible Signal One’s Piety?” Bible Design Blog. 14 November. http://www.bibledesignblog.com/2008/11/does-a-trashed-bible-signal-ones-piety.html. Accessed 15 August 2010.
NASA. “Moondust and Duct Tape.” 2008. NASA Science: Science News. 21 April. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/21apr_ducttape/. Accessed 18 August 2010.
Parmenter, Dorina Miller. 2006. “The Iconic Book: The Image of the Bible in Early Christian Rituals.” Postscripts 2: 160–189.
———. 2009. “The Bible as Icon: Myths of the Divine Origins of Scripture.” In Jewish and Christian Scripture as Artifact and Canon, edited by Craig A. Evans and Daniel Zacharias, 298–309. London and New York: T. & T. Clark.
———. 2010. “A Fitting Ceremony: Christian Concerns for Bible Disposal.” In The Death of Sacred Texts: Ritual Disposal and Renovation of Texts in World Religions, edited by Kristina Myrvold, 55–70. Farnham: Ashgate.
Peters, F. E. 2007. The Voice, the Word, the Books: The Sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Petrucci, Armando. 1995. “The Christian Conception of the Book in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries.” In Writers and Readers in Medieval Italy, edited and translated by Charles M. Radding, 19–42. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Prothero, Stephen. 2003. American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.
———. 2007. Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—And Doesn’t. New York: Harper Collins.
Putnam, Daryl. 2010. “Duct Tape in Popular Culture.” Factoidz. http://factoidz.com/duct-tape-in-popular-culture/. Accessed 23 December 2010.
Rice, David and Rice, Tamara Talbot. 1974. Icons and their History. Woodstock: The Overlook Press.
Safire, William. 2003. “On Language: Why A Duck.” New York Times Magazine. 2 March. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-3-02-03-on-language-why-a-duck.html. Accessed 18 August 2010.
Sal. 2009. Response to “Encouraged by my Wife’s Torn Up Bible.” Irish Calvinist. 30 April. http://www.irishcalvinist.com/?p=2820. Accessed 5 September 2010.
Simone, Mark A. 1997. “What I Like About Duct Tape” (Sermon at Federated Church, Chagrin Falls, Ohio). The Gospel According to Duct Tape. http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/Gospel/index.html. Accessed 21 August 2010.
Smith, Jonathan Z. 2009. “Religion and Bible.” Journal of Biblical Literature 128: