Bible Performances: An Empirical-Qualitative Study about the Use of the Bible in Christian-Religious Practices

在以圣经为基础的宗教中，宗教的认同、意义的创造和定位是通过使用和引用神圣的经文来实现的。在宗教变革(世俗化、多元化、个人化、再神圣化)的推动下，这些做法及其提供身份和取向的方式正在发生变化。我们的项目将在基督教的背景下分析这些做法的当代表现和意义。研究将侧重于“圣经”的表现--书籍作为物质对象(物质性)，以及引用文本及其基督教传统的行为(文本-指代性)。将仔细研究三个背景：仪式(礼拜)、宗教教育(基于教会的教育)和小型圣经团体(集体宗教信仰)。数据将通过对瑞士和德国的罗马天主教徒、路德/改革宗和自由教会/非宗派社区的研究而产生。在跨学科分析的指导下，新的摄像和人种学方法将首次应用于圣经在不同背景下的实际使用。解开忏悔和文化特质，将允许对使用和援引圣经经文所涉及的物质表现、意义和影响进行更深刻和全面的理论推导。因此，可以生成圣经表演的全面分类，并可以整理它们在教派和文化上确定的促进作用。为了分析“圣经表演”，我们将展示物质(IM-)的相互渗透，即在言语指称中，与不同的肉体，即在使用书籍、石板或视频投影时。我们的分析认为，文本指涉和中介化的所有做法都同样普遍，而不是将数字转型斥为纯粹的去物质化。我们将从实用神学和交互语言学的交叉点出发，探索和发展用于录像的数据收集和三角测量方法，并为神学研究的视觉、表演、材料和实践转向做出贡献。归纳-描述和多视角的方法将揭示当代圣经表演的状态和形态。在说话和实际表演行为中分析圣经文本，将与研究构建和传播(圣经-书籍--)知识的文化过程相结合。这将创造对基于圣经的教育和宗教(团体)身份的洞察。该项目将解决有关宗教物质文化和宗教经文在当代文化中的社会-宗教影响的辩论。系统地对比各个项目和比较不同的背景，同时产生新的数据，将提供不同宗教传统中不同形式的当代圣经表演的途径，产生当今流行的圣经相关性的理论。

In scripture-based religions, religious identification, meaning-making, and orientation is achieved by using and referencing ,sacred texts’. Fuelled by religious transformation (secularisation, pluralisation, individualisation, re-sacralisation) those practices and the ways that they provide identities and orientation are changing. Our project will analyse contemporary manifestations and significance of those practices within the context of Christianity. Research will focus on performances of “Bible”-books as material objects (materiality), and on acts of referencing texts and their Christian traditions (text-referentiality). Three contexts will be scrutinised: ‚ritual’ (worship services), ‚religious education’ (church based education), and small bible groups (collective religiosity). Data will be generated by the study of Roman Catholic, Lutheran/Reformed and Free-Church/non-denominational communities in Switzerland and Germany. For the first time new methods of videography and ethnography, informed by transdisciplinary analyses will be applied to actual uses of the bible in different contexts. Unpacking confessional and cultural idiosyncrasies, will allow for a more profound and comprehensive theorisation of material manifestations, signification, and effects which performances of using and invoking biblical texts entail. Thus, a comprehensive taxonomy of Bible performances can be generated and their denominationally and culturally determined facilitation can be collated. In order to analyse ‘Bible performances’, we will show the interpenetration of (im-)materialities, i.e. in verbal reference, with different corporalities, i.e. in the use of books, tablets, or video projections. Rather than dismissing digital transformations as mere de-materialisation, our analysis sees all practices of text-referentiality and mediatisation as equally pervasive. Working from the intersection of Practical Theology and Interactional Linguistics, we will explore and develop data collection, triangulating methods used in videography and contribute to the visual, performative, material, and practice turns in theological research. An inductive-descriptive and multiperspective approach will reveal the state and shape of contemporary Bible performances. Analysing biblical texts within acts of speaking and physical performances will be combined with research into the cultural processes of constructing and dispensing (Bible-book-)knowledge. This will create insight into Bible-based education and religious (group-)identities. The project will address debates concerning religious material culture and the socio-religious impact of ‚sacred texts’ in contemporary culture. Systematically contrasting the individual projects and comparing different contexts, whilst generating fresh data, will provide access to different forms of contemporary bible performances in diverse religious traditions, producing a prevailing theorisation of the relevance of the Bible today.