Fall 2010

REL 611
The Idea of Scripture

Thursdays 12:30-3:15 p.m. in HL 504

Instructor: JIM WATTS (Ph.D.)
Office: 501 HL; Phone: 443-5713
E-mail: jwwatts

Displaying Torah ScrollScripture window

Quran monument, UAEEgyptian Pappyrus of Ani

This seminar will explore the various forms and uses of scripture in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, starting with the idea of scripture in modern cultures and tracing it back through early modern, medieval and late antique cultures. The seminar will end by exploring the religious, literary, and political factors that affected the development and canonization of scripture in ancient Judaism and early Christianity, and shaped the idea of authoritative scripture in all three Western religious traditions.

Course Requirements:
Students are expected to discuss in class all the required readings (listed below after Assignment) and as much additional literature (listed as Background) necessary to understand the developments under discussion.  In addition, each student will (1) prepare and present a report on one additional book or set of essays (listed after Report), and (2) write a substantive and original research paper on a subject related to the course topic, presenting the class with a preliminary summary during the last class meetings. The finished research papers are due on or before May13th. The students work will be evaluated on the basis of class participation (20%), the oral and written book report (20%), the research presentation (10%) and the final research paper (50%). Late papers and reports will not be eligible for "A" grades.

Required Texts:
F. E. Peters, The Voice, the Word, the Books: The Sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. (Princeton, 2007)
Brian Malley, How the Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism (AltaMira, 2004)
John F.A. Sawyer, Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts (Routledge, 1999)
Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society (Cambridge, 1986).

The assigned articles, except those hotlinked to this syllabus and/or marked by a minus (-), are available electronically through Blackboard or on paper in the black binder in the Religion Department lounge. The required textbooks are for sale in the Bookstore and also available on reserve in Bird Library. For further resources relevant to the topic of this course, consult the Supplementary readings, the other articles in the collections cited below and also the annotated bibliography in Canonization and Decanonization 435-506.

Topics and Readings (for full citations, see bibliography below):

 

Day

Topic

Texts:

Sep 2

Introductions

Assignment: Graham, “Scripture”
Peters, Voice 1-37, 271-276

Sep 9

The Texts of Scriptures

Assignment: Peters, Voice 38-79
Sheppard, “Canon”
Malley, How the Bible Works (all)
Pulis, “In the Beginning”
J.Z. Smith, “Sacred Persistence”
J.Z. Smith, “Canons, Catalogues and Classics” 
Report: W.C. Smith, What Is Scripture?
Gold, Making the Bible Modern
Background: - Neil, “Criticism and Theological Use,”CHB 3:238-293
- W.C. Smith, “The Study of Religion and the Study of the Bible”
- Greenberg, “On the Political Use of the Bible in Modern Israel”

Sep 16

The Performance of Scriptures

Assignment: Peters, Voice 247-70
Denny, “Recitation of the Quran” 
- “Keriat Hatorah - Reading of the Law”
Yoo, “Public Scripture Reading Rituals”
Graham, “Conclusion,” Beyond the Written Word
Wimbush, “TEXTureS, Gestures, Power”
Pasulka, “Premodern Scriptures in Postmodern Times”
Report: Graham, Beyond the Written Word
Wimbush, The Bible and the American Myth
Background: Kassam, “Signifying Revelation in Islam”
Gold, Making the Bible Modern 10-24
Halbertal, People of the Book 129-34

Sep 23

The Iconicity of Scriptures

Assignment: Peters, Voice 219-46
Marty, “America's Iconic Book”
Watts, “Three Dimensions of Scriptures”
Krause-Loner, “Be-Witching Scripture”
Browse The Iconic Books Blog
Report: Myrvold, Death of Sacred Texts
Background: Legendre, “La totémisation de la société"
Kinnard, "Buddhist Bibliolators"

Sep 30

No class; attend Iconic Books Symposium Oct 1-3

Assignment: Read ALL precirculated papers; for discussions, see symposium schedule

Oct 7

Reflecting on the Third Iconic Books Symposium

Assignment: Read ALL precirculated papers, and be prepared to discuss papers and symposium sessions in class

Oct 14

Reformation, Modernity,
and Postmodernity

Assignment: Greenspahn, “Biblical Scholars”
Kugel, “The Bible in the University”
Levenson, “Theological Consensus or Historicist Evasion?”
Hill, “Charles Augustus Briggs, Modernism and the Rise”
Sugirtharajah, “Known Knowns and Unknown Unknowns”
Report:
Background:
Malley, “Bible in British Folklore”
-Bainton, “Bible in the Reformation,” CHB 3:1-37
-Crehan, “Bible in the Roman Catholic Church,” CHB 3:199-237

Oct 21

Medieval Islam, Translations, & Manuscripts

Assignment: Peters, Voice 120-51
Goering, “Introduction to Medieval Christian Biblical Interpretation”
Walfish, “Introduction to Medieval Jewish Biblical Interpretation”
McAuliffe, “Introduction to Medieval Interpretation of the Qur’an”
Pulcini, Exegesis as Polemical Discourse 13-56
Heyman, “Canon Law and the Canon of Scripture”
Morey, Book and Verse 1-8
Kessler, “The Book as Icon”
Parmenter, “The Iconic Book: Image of the Bible in Ritual”
Report:
Morey, Book and Verse
Background: -
Dijk, “Bible in Liturgical Use,” CHB 2:220-251
-Articles under “Vernacular Scriptures,” CHB 2:338-491
Al-Azmeh, “The Muslim Canon"
Halbertal, People of the Book 90-128, 137-144
Borg, “Canon and Social Control”
Wheeler, Applying the Canon in Islam

Oct 28

Ancient Christianity & Book Myths

Assignment: - Luke 1-2; 2 Timothy 3:14-17
Peters, Voice 105-19, 152-88
Miller, "Words with an Alien Voice"
Humfress, "Judging by the Book"
Van der Horst, "Sortes: Sacred Books ..."
Parmenter, “The Bible as Icon: Myths of Divine Origins”
Report: Klingshirn & Safran, The Early Christian Book
Background: *Spatharakis, “Early Christian Illustrated Gospel” 
*Dael, “Biblical Cycles on Church Walls”
-Lamb, "...Bible in the Liturgy," CHB 1:563-586
Barton, Holy Writings, Sacred Text
Childs, “The Problem of the Christian Bible”
Rapp, "Holy Texts, Holy Men, Holy Scribes"

 Oct 30-Nov 1

If in Atlanta for AAR, check out:

A31-252 Material Scriptures (Sunday 3:00-4:30) with James Bielo, Timothy Beal, David Dault, and Dori Parmenter

Nov 4

Ancient Judaism & Competing Canons

Due: Paper topics and texts
Assignment:
Mishnah Berakhot 1:1-4; 4:1-7
Halbertal, People of the Book 45-89
Alexander, "Homer, the Prophet..."
- 2 Maccabees 7
Rutgers, "Importance of Scripture" 287-303
Zevit, “The Second-Third Century Canonization"
Background: -Vermes, "Bible and Midrash," CHB 1:199-231
Neusner & Green, Writing with Scripture

Nov 11

Texts & Translations

Assignment: Peters, Voice 182-218
Sawyer, Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts (all)
Miller, "In Praise of Nonsense"
Oxtoby, "`Telling in Their Own Tongue'"
Samson, “The Word of God and ‘Our Words’.”
Letter of Aristeas
Background: * Roberts, "Books in the Greaco-Roman," CHB 1:48-66

Halbertal, People of the Book 11-44
Waldron, "From Performance to Casket Copy"

Nov 18

Literacy & Orality

Due: Paper thesis, bibliography and outline
Assignment:
Foster, tr., "Pious Scholar"
Peters, Voice 80-104
Goody, Written Tradition (all)
Carr, Tablet of the Heart, 3-14, 20-34, 81-83, 99-109, 161-73, 193-98, 287-97 (COPY)
Supplementary:
- Davies, Scribes and Schools
Rothberg-Halton, "Canonicity in Cuneiform Texts"?
Kooij, "The Canonization of Ancient Books"
Lang, "The 'Writings': A Hellenistic Literary Canon"
Ulrich, "The Bible in the Making"
Lust, "Quotation formulae and Canon in Qumran"

Nov 25

Thanksgiving Break
No Class

If in Atlanta for SBL, check out:
21-135 Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible (11/21 9:00-11:30)

Dec 2

Icons & Books

Assignment:
- Exodus 24, Deuteronomy 31; 2 Kings 22-23; Nehemiah 8
Levinson, Deuteronomy vii-viii, 3-22, 144-157
Toorn, “The Iconic Book"
Watts, “Political and Legal Uses”
Sarefield, "Symbolics of Book Burning"
W.C. Smith, "Scripture as Form and Concept"
Background: *Wiseman, "Books in the Ancient Near East" CHB 1:30-48
Supplementary: - Hallo, The Context of Scripture

Dec 9

Paper presentations

 

Dec 20

Research Papers Due

 

 


Course Bibliography:

  • The Bible and the American Myth: A Symposium on the Bible and the Construction of Meaning (Macon: Mercer University Pres, 1999)
  • The Cambridge History of the Bible (CHB), 3 vols., eds P. R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans, S. L. Greenslade and G. W. H. Lampe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963, 1969, 1970) (available in Bird Library Reference section and in the stacks)
  • Canonization and Decanonization, with An Annotated Bibliography by J. A. M. Snoek, eds. A. van der Kooij, K. van der Toorn (Leiden: Brill, 1998)
  • The Early Christian Book. Ed. William E. Klingshirn and Linda Safran (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).
  • The Image and the Book: Iconic Cults, Aniconism and the Rise of Book Religion in Israel and the Ancient Near East, ed. K. van der Toorn (Louven: Peeters, 1997)
  • The Impact of Scripture on Early Christianity, ed. J. den Boeft & M. L. van Poll-van de Lisdonk (Leiden: Brill, 1999)
  • The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Biblicism. Ed. James S. Bielo. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009)
  • Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon. Ed. Vincent L. Wimbush. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008)
  • The Use of Sacred Books in the Ancient World, ed. L.V. Rutgers et al (Leuven: Peeters, 1998)
  • With Reverence for the Word: Medieval Scriptural Exegesis in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. J. D. McAuliffe, B. D. Walfish, and J. W. Goering (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
  • Aichele, George. The Control of Biblical Meaning: Canon as Semiotic Mechanism. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity, 2001.
  • Akenson, Donald Harmon. Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds (Chicago, 1998).
  • *Al-Azmeh, A. “The Muslim Canon from Late Antiquity to the Era of Modernism” in Canonization and Decanonization 191-228.
  • *Alexander, Philip S. "`Homer the Prophet of All' and 'Moses our Teacher': Late Antique Exegesis of the Homeric Epics and of the Torah of Moses," in Use of Sacred Books 127-142.
  • Alter, Robert. Canon and Creativity: Modern Writing and the Authority of Scripture (New Haven: Yale, 2000).
  • Arnold, Phillip. “Paper Rituals and the Mexican landscape.” In Representing Aztec Ritual: Performance, Text, and Image in the Work of Sahagún. Edited by Eloise Quiñones Keber. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2002. 227-250.
  • Arnold, Phillip. “Black Elk and Book Culture.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67 (1999) 85-111.
  • Bainton, Roland H. "The Bible in the Reformation," CHB 3:1-37.
  • *Barton, John. Holy Writings, Sacred Text: the Canon in Early Christianity (Louisville: WJK, 1997)
  • Bell, Catherine. "Scriptures—Text and Then Some." In Theorizing Scriptures, 23-28.
  • Brown, Michelle P. The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe (London: British Library, 2003).
  • Biderman, Shlomo. Scripture and Knowledge: An Essay on Religious Epistemology (Leiden: Brill, 1995).
  • *Borg, M.B. ter. “Canon and Social Control,” in Canonization and Decanonization 411-423.
  • Burton-Christie, Douglas. The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  • Campenhausen, Hans von. The Formation of the Christian Bible (tr. J. A. Baker, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972)
  • Carr, David M. Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature (New York: Oxford, 2005).
  • Casson, Lionel. Libraries in the Ancient World. New Haven: Yale, 2001.
  • Chartier, Roger. Forms and Meanings: Texts, Performances, and Audiences from Codex to Computer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.
  • Childs, Brevard S. “The Problem of the Christian Bible,” in Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), pp. 55-69
  • Clines, David J.A. The Bible and the Modern World (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997)
  • 3:199-237.
  • Chireau, Yvonne P. "Conjuring Scriptures and Engendering Healing Traditions." In Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon. Ed. V. L. Wimbush. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. 119-27.
  • Clarke, Sathianathan. “Viewing the Bible through the Eyes and Ears of Subalterns in India.” Biblical Interpretation 10/3 (2002): 251-257.
  • Cohn, Yehudah B. Tangled Up In Text: Tefillin and the Ancient World. Providence: Brown Judaic Studies, 2008.
  • Cornelius, Izak.  "The Many Faces of God: Divine Images and Symbols in Ancient Near Eastern Religions," in The Image and the Book 21-43.
  • Coward, Harold. Sacred Word and Sacred Text: Scripture in World Religions (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1988)
  • Coward, Harold. Experiencing Scripture in World Religions (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000).
  • Crehan, F.J. "The Bible in the Roman Catholic Church from Trent to the Present Day," CHB
  • Cressey, D. “Books as Totems in Seventeenth-Century England and New England.” Journal of Library History 21/1 (1986) 92-106.
  • Crom, Dries De. “The Letter of Aristeas and the Authority of the Septuagint.” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 17.2 (2008): 141-160.
  • Dael, P.C.J. van. “Biblical Cycles on Church Walls: Pro Lectione Pictura,” in J. den Boeft & M. L. van Poll-van de Lisdonk (eds.),  The Impact of Scripture on Early Christianity 122-132.
  • Davies, Philip R. Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures (Louisville: Westminster, 1998).
  • Denny, Frederick M. "Recitation of the Quran," Islam and the Muslim Community (San Francisco : Harper & Row, 1987), pp. 78-88.
  • Denny, Frederick and Rodney Taylor, eds. The Holy Book in Comparative Perspective (Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1985).
  • Depew, Mary. Matrices of Genre: Authors, Canons, and Society (Cambridge: Harvard, 2000).
  • Dijk, S.J.P. "The Bible in Liturgical Use," CHB 2:220-251.
  • Drogin, Marc. Biblioclasm: The Mythical Origins, Magic Powers, and Perishability of the Written Word. Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1989.
  • Folkert, K. W. “The ‘Canons’ of ‘Scripture’,” in M. Levering, ed., Rethinking Scripture: Essay from a Comparative Perspective (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989), 170-79.
  • Foster, Benjamin. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (Bethesda: CDL, 1993).
  • Frei, Hans. The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics (New Haven: Yale, 1974).
  • Frei, Peter. "Persian Imperial Authorization: A Summary," trans. by J.W. Watts, in Persia and Torah: The Theory of Imperial Authorization of the Pentateuch (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001), pp. 5-40.
  • *Goering, Joseph W. “An Introduction to Medieval Christian Biblical Interpretation,” in With Reverence for the Word, 197-203.
  • Gold, Penny Shine. Making the Bible Modern: Children's Bibles and Jewish Education in Twentieth-Century America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.
  • Goody, Jack. The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society (Cambridge, 1986).
  • Goody, Jack. The Power of the Written Tradition (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 2000).
  • Graham, William A. Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
  • Graham, William A. “Scripture.” Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.), 12:8194-8205.
  • Green, William Scott. “Scripture in Classical Judaism.” In The Encyclopedia of Judaism. Ed. J. Neusner, S. Peck and W. S. Green. New York: Continuum/Leiden: Brill, 1999. 1302-1309.
  • Greenberg, Moshe. "On the Political Use of the Bible in Modern Israel: An Engaged Critique," in D. P. Wright et al (eds.), Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies ... in Honor of Jacob Milgrom (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1995), pp. 461-471.
  • Greenspahn, Frederick E. "Biblical Scholars, Medieval and Modern," in J. Neusner et al (eds.), Judaic Perspectives on Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), pp. 245-258.
  • Griffiths, Paul J. Religious Reading: the place of reading in the practice of religion (Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1999)
  • Gutjahr, Paul. An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777-1880 (New Haven: Yale, 1999)
  • * Halbertal, Moshe. People of the Book: Canon, Meaning, and Authority (Harvard, 1997)
  • Hallo, W.W.  The Context of Scripture. Vol. 1: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World (Leiden: Brill, 1997)
  • Hamel, Christopher de. The Book: A History of the Bible. New York: Phaidon, 2001.
  • Harrisville, Roy A. & Walter Sundberg. The Bible in Modern Culture: Baruch Spinoza to Brevard Childs (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001).
  • Hatch, Nathan O. and Mark A. Noll, eds. The Bible in America: Essays in Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
  • Hays, Richard, and Ellen Davis, eds. The Art of Reading Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
  • *Hettema, Th. L. “The Canon: Authority and Fascination” in Canonization and Decanonization 391-398.
  • Heyman, George. "Canon Law and the Canon of Scripture." Postscripts 2 (2006), 209-25.
  • *Hill, Doug. "Charles Augustus Briggs, Modernism, and the Rise of Biblical Scholarship in Nineteenth-Century America," in V.L. Wimbush (ed.), The Bible and the American Myth: A Symposium on the Bible and the Construction of Meaning (Macon: Mercer University Pres, 1999), pp. 71-104.
  • * Horst, Pieter W. van der. "Sortes: Sacred Books as Instant Oracles in Late Antiquity" in Use of Sacred Books 143-173.
  • Humfress, Caroline. “Judging by the Book: Christian Codices and Late Antique Legal Culture.” In Early Christian Book, 141-158.
  • Jaffee, Martin S. Torah in the Mouth: Writing and Oral Tradition in Palestinian Judaism 200 BCE-400 CE (New York: Oxford, 2000).
  • Johannot, Yvonne. Tourner la page: livre, rites et symboles. Millon, 1988.
  • Kassam, Tazim R. "Signifying Revelation in Islam." In Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon. Ed. V. L. Wimbush. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. 29-40.
  • Kessler, Herbert L. "The Book as Icon." In In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000. Ed. Michelle P. Brown. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 2006. 77-103, 222-244.
  • Kinnard, Jacob N. “On Buddhist ‘Bibliolaters’: Representing and Worshiping the Book in Medieval Indian Buddhism.” The Eastern Buddhist 34/2 (2002) 94-116, and plates 1 and 2.
  • Kling, David W. The Bible in History: How the Texts have Shaped the Times. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
  • *Kooij, A. van der. "The Canonization of Ancient Books Kept in the Temple of Jerusalem," in Canonization and Decanonization 17-40.
  • Krause-Loner, Shawn. “Be-Witching Scripture: The Book of Shadows as Scripture within Wicca/Neo-Pagan Witchcraft.” Postscripts 2 (2006), 273-92.
  • Kugel, James L. The Bible As It Was. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1997.
  • Kugel, James L. "The Bible in the University," in W. H. Propp et al (eds.), The Hebrew Bible and Its Interpreters (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990), pp. 143-165.
  • Lamb, J.A. "The Place of the Bible in the Liturgy," CHB 1:563-586.
  • Lambert, W. G. "Ancestors, Authors, and Canonicity," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 11 (1951), pp. 1-14.
  • *Lang, B. "The 'Writings': A Hellenistic Literary Canon in the Hebrew Bible," in Canonization and Decanonization 41-65.
  • Legendre, P. “La totémisation de la société: Remarques sur les montages canoniques et la question du sujet,” in Canonization and Decanonization 425-433.
  • Leipoldt, Johannes and Siegfried Morens. Heilige Schriften: Betrachtungen zur Religionsgeschichte der antiken Mittelmeerwelt. Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1953.
  • Levenson, Jon D. "Theological Consensus or Historicist Evasion? Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies," in R. Brooks & J. J. Collins (eds.), Hebrew Bible or Old Testament: Studying the Bible in Judaism and Christianity (U. of Notre Dame, 1990), pp. 109-145.
  • Levinson, Bernard. Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (Oxford, 1997)
  • Lieberman, Stephen J.  "Canonical and Official Cuneiform Texts: Towards an Understanding of Assurbanipal's Personal Tablet Collection," in Tsvi Abusch et al (eds.), Lingering over Words: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Literature in Honor of William J. Moran (HSM 37; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), pp. 305-336.
  • Lowden, John. “The Word Made Visible: The Exterior of the Early Christian Book as Visual Argument.” In Early Christian Book, 13-47.
  • *Lust, J.L. “Quotation Formulae and Canon in Qumran,” in Canonization and Decanonization (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 67-77.
  • *Malley, Brian. How the Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2004).
  • Malley, Brian. “What is ‘the Bible’? Analysis of a Text Concept.” In Timothy Light and Brian Wilson (eds.), Religion as a Human Capacity. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
  • Malley, Brian. “The Bible in British folklore.” Postscripts 2 (2006), 241-72.
  • Mann, Gurinder Singh. "Scriptures and the Nature of Authority: The Case of the Guru Granth in Sikh Tradition." In Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon. Ed. V. L. Wimbush. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. 41-54.
  • Marty, Martin. “America's Iconic Book,” in Humanizing America's Iconic Book (ed. Gene M. Tucker and Douglas A. Knight; Chico: Scholars Press, 1982), 1-23.
  • Marty, Martin. “Scripturality: The Bible as Icon in the Republic,” chapter 7 in Religion and Republic: The American Circumstance (Boston: Beacon Press, 1987), 140-65.
  • *McAuliffe, Jane Dammen. “An Introduction to Medieval Interpretation of the Qur’an,” in With Reverence for the Word, 311-19.
  • Melanchon, Monica Jyotsna. “Dalits, Bible, and Method.” SBLForum, December, 2005.
  • Meyer, Elizabeth A. Legitimacy and Law in the Roman World: Tabulae in Roman Belief and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • Miller, Patricia Cox. "In Praise of Nonsense." In A. H. Armstrong, ed. Classical Mediterranean Spirituality (New York: Crossroad, 1986), 481-505; repr. in Miller, The Poetry of Thought in Late Antiquity (Burlington: Ashgate, 2001), 221-245.
  • Miller, Patricia Cox. "Words with an Alien Voice: Gnostics, Scripture, and Canon." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 57 (1989) 459-483; repr. in Miller, The Poetry of Thought in Late Antiquity (Burlington: Ashgate, 2001), 247-270.
  • Morgan, David. Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1998.
  • Morgan, David, ed. Icons of American Protestantism: the Art of Warner Sallman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. 43-120.
  • Morgan, David. The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. 48-74.
  • Morey, James. Book and Verse: A Guide to Middle English Biblical Literature (Urbana: U. of Illinois, 2000).
  • Myrvold, Kristina. Inside the Guru's Gate: Ritual Uses of Texts Among the Sikhs of Varanasi. Lund: Lund Universtiy, 2007.
  • Myrvold, Kristina. The Death of Sacred Texts: Ritual Disposal and Renovation of Texts in World Religions. London: Ashgate, 2010.
  • Neil, W. "Criticism and Theological Use of the Bible, 1700-1950," CHB 3:238-293.
  • Nöldecke, Theodor. Geschichte des Qorans, Leipzig, 1909-1938.
  • Neusner, Jacob & William Scott Green, Writing with Scripture: the Authority and Uses of the Hebrew Bible in the Torah of Formative Judaism, Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989.
  • O’Sullivan, Orlaith, ed. The Bible as Book: The Reformation. New Castle, DE.: Oak Knoll Press; London: The British Library, 2000.
  • Oxtoby, Willard G. "`Telling in Their Own Tongues': Old and Modern Bible Translations as Expressions of Ethnic Cultural Identity," in W. Beuken & S. Freyne, The Bible As Cultural Heritage (London: SCM, 1995), pp. 24-35.
  • Parmenter, Dorina Miller. “The Iconic Book: The Image of the Bible in Early Christian Rituals.” Postscripts 2 (2006), 160-89.
  • Parmenter, Dorina Miller. “The Bible as Icon: Myths of the Divine Origins of Scripture,” in Jewish and Christian Scripture as Artifact and Canon (ed. Craig A. Evans and H. Daniel Zacharias; London: T. & T. Clark, 2009), 298-310.
  • Pasulka, Diana Walsh. The Aesthetics of Nostalgia: The Return of the Real in Postmodern Christian Discourse. Ph.D. Dissertation, Syracuse University, 2003.
  • Pasulka, Diana Walsh. "Premodern Scriptures in Postmodern Times." Postscripts 2 (2006), 293-315.
  • Peters, F. E. The Voice, the Word, the Books: The Sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
  • Phy, Allene Stuart. "The Bible and American Popular Culture: an Overview and Introduction," in The Bible and Popular Culture in America (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), pp. 1-23.
  • Pulcini, Theodore. Exegesis as Polemical Discourse: Ibn Hazm on Jewish and Christian Scriptures (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998.
  • Pulis, John W. “ ‘In the Beginning’: A Chapter from the Living Testament of Rastafari.” In Bielo, Social Life of Scriptures, 30-43.
  • Rapp, Claudia. “Holy Texts, Holy Men and Holy Scribes: Aspects of Scriptural Holiness in Late Antiquity.” In Early Christian Book, 194-222.
  • Reventlow, Henning Graf. The Authority of the Bible and the Rise of the Modern World (tr. J. Bowden, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984)
  • Roberts, C.H. "Books in the Greco-Roman World and in the New Testament," CHB 1:48-66.
  • Rochberg, Francesca. Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • Rosenthal, Erwin I.J. "The Study of the Bible in Medieval Judaism," CHB 2:252-279.
  • Rothberg-Halton, Francesca, "Canonicity in Cuneiform Texts," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 36 (1984) 127-144.
  • *Rutgers, Leonard V. "The Importance of Scripture in the Conflict between Jews and Christians: The Example of Antioch," in Use of Sacred Books 287-303.
  • Sarefield, Daniel. "The Symbolics of Book Burning: The Establishment of a Christian Ritual of Persecution." In Early Christian Book, 159-73.
  • Samson, C. Mathews. “The Word of God and ‘Our Words’: The Bible and Translation in a Mam Maya Context.” In Bielo, Social Life of Scriptures, 64-79.
  • *Sawyer, John F.A. Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts (London: Routledge, 1999)
  • Sharpe, John, and Kimberly Van Kampen, eds. The Bible as Book: The Manuscript Tradition. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press; London: The British Library, 1998.
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