On the failure of ‘meaning’: Bible reading in the anthropology of Christianity

Abstract

In this article I contribute to research in the anthropology of Christianity by exploring the practice of group Bible reading. I focus on the analytical category of ‘meaning’ and what happens when readers continually fail to produce defined, resolved readings of particular Biblical texts. To investigate these issues I draw on ethnographic fieldwork with a Missouri-Synod Lutheran men's group in the Midwestern United States, and their 12-week study of the book of Proverbs. Based on in-depth analyses of group interactions, I argue that, despite the lingering of multiple and conflicting interpretations, the search for meaning encodes a distinct set of cultural concerns. For example, presuppositions about the Bible's authority, textuality and relevance, and notions of religious identity are embedded within the group's interpretive discourse. Following research in the recent volume The limits of meaning, I maintain that ‘meaning’ is best conceptualized as a process that unfolds through social practice rather th...