What do evangelicals believe when they 'believe in the Bible?' Despite hundreds of English versions that differ in their texts, evangelicals continue to believe that there is a stable text—'the Bible'—which is the authoritative word of God and an essential guide to their everyday lives. To understand this phenomenon of evangelical Biblicism, anthropologist and biblical scholar Brian Malley looks not to the words of the Bible but to the Bible-believing communities. For as Malley demonstrates, it is less the meaning of the words of the Bible itself than how 'the Bible' provides a proper ground for beliefs that matters to evangelicals. Drawing on recent cognitive and social theory and extensive fieldwork in an evangelical church, Malley's book is an invaluable guide for seminarians, social scientists of religion, or for anyone who wants to understand just how the Bible works for American evangelicals.
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Brian Malley's ethnography brims with bold new insights and counter-intuitive ideas about how conservative evangelicals know 'what the Bible says.' After deftly disposing of literalist clichés, he shows how their interpretive traditions combine with an absence of hermeneutic method and their desire for daily relevance to 'bring the Bible alive' for each generation. A must-read for anyone curious about what Bible belief really is and how it happens. (Susan Harding )
This is an exciting time for students of religion, with new competing theories drawing on cognitive anthropology and psychology, and on evolutionary biology. With this first in-depth case-study of a religious movement based on these novel ideas, Brian Malley makes an outstanding contribution to the ongoing debates. (Dan Sperber )
This is an exciting time for students of religion, with new competing theories drawing on cognitive anthropology and psychology, and on evolutionary biology. With this first in-depth case-study of a religious movement based on these novel ideas, Brian Malley makes an outstanding contribution to the ongoing debates. (Dan Sperber )
About the Author
Brian Malley studied comparative religion at Western Michigan University (M.A., 1994) and anthropology at the University of Michigan (Ph.D., 2002). He currently lectures in psychology at the University of Michigan. His main interests are religion and the intersection of culture and cognition.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
American biblicism studied with empirical precision,
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This review is from: How the Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism (Cognitive Science of Religion) (Paperback)
For anyone interested in understanding the mechanics of American biblicism, this is perhaps the best anthropological study that could be done on the subject. With a fundamentalist/evangelical history in his own life, Malley gets to the core issues with great precision; yet he approaches this study very objectively. This book is not a polemic. It is a fantastic and enlightening empirical study on biblicism. So much information is packed into relatively few pages that you'll likely want to read it multiple times, letting the insights soak in further with each read.
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book, but technical at times.,
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This review is from: How the Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism (Cognitive Science of Religion) (Paperback)
I read this book for Dr. Malley's Introduction to Anthropology course at the University of Michigan, and I was impressed. His knowledge of how the Bible is seen by churchgoers is second to none, and throughout the book the reader comes to "know" the people a the Creekside Baptist Church, though that name is a pseudonym. I wouldn't recommend this book for coffee-table reading, as there are lots of technical details; it is better suited for a reader in the academic field.
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