Scripturalectics: The Management of Meaning

In this book ,Vincent Wimbush seeks to problematize what we call "scriptures," a word first used to refer simply to "things written," the registration of basic information. In the modern world the word came to be associated almost exclusively with the center- and power-defining "sacred" texts of "world religions." Wimbush argues that this narrowing of the valence of the term was a decisive development for western culture. His purpose is to reconsider the initially broad and politically charged use of the term. "Scriptures" are excavated not merely as texts to be read but understood as discourse: as mimetic rituals and practices, as ideologically-charged orientations to and prescribed behaviors in the world, as structures of relationships and social formations, as forms of communication. Wimbush is naming and constructing a new transdisciplinary critical project, which uses the historical and modern experiences of the Black Atlantic as resources for framing, categorization, and analysis. Using Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart as a touchstone, each chapter offers a close reading and analysis of a representative moment in the formation of the Black Atlantic, regarded as part of a history of modern human consciousness and conscientization. Such a history, Wimbush says, is reflected in the major turns in what he calls scripturalectics, part of the construction of the modern world, defined as efforts to manage or control knowledge and meaning.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction: Scripturalectics as Turns in the Human Quest for Meaning I. "Aru Oyim De De De Dei!": Mask-ing Meaning Ii. "Pacification of the Primitive Tribes": Meaning as White Savagery Iii. "We Have Fallen Apart": The Rupture of Meaning Summary Conclusion: The End of Scriptures, the Beginning of Scripturalectics

About the Author :
Vincent L. Wimbush is the former president of the Society of Biblical Literature and the founding director of The Institute for Signifying Scriptures. He is the author or editor of several books, most recently Scripturalizing the Human: The Written as the Political and Refractions of the Scriptural: Critical Orientation as Transgression.

Review :
"Scripturalectics offers a rigorous proposal that refocuses attention from texts to power relations, from disciplinary exegesis and apologetics to interdisciplinary interrogations of worldview formation, and from affirming the stability of textual meanings and practices to noticing ruptures in knowledge construction and reification. It is a challenge to biblical scholarship, to be sure, and a challenge even to those who would claim 'innovation' in the field. That said, all scholars of religion and readers of 'scriptures' might do well to re-examine categories, assumptions, and power relations that inform our discourses and practices."--Davina C. Lopez, Reading Religion "A compelling and provocative book from one of the boldest leaders in Religious Studies. Everyone should take notice of what Vincent Wimbush says about scripturalization, scripturalectics and the effects of White Man's Magic-not least on the disciplines we inhabit."--Yvonne Sherwood, author of Biblical Blaspheming: Trials of the Sacred for a Secular Age "Scripturalectics is a brilliant study of the politics of language and texts as bearers of meaning for worlds some assume but others must assert. It engages the Black Atlantic through Equiano and Chinua Achebe and Wimbush's subtle analysis of these giants of black narrative gives new meaning to signification, portraying scriptures as language use, knowledge-claims, and consciousness formation central to dismantling domination and establishing an inclusive world. It is a must read for all interested in thought and practice."--Elias Kifon Bongmba, Harry and Hazel Chair in Christian Theology, Rice University "Vincent Wimbush has dedicated well over two decades of his distinguished academic career to theorizing the cultural influence of different forms of sacred writing. Building upon the scholarship of the French scriptural theorist Michel de CerteauDLbut adding the all-important analytical lens of raceDLWimbush offers us in Scripturalectics yet another stunning theoretical discussion focused on making sense of the holy and unholy uses of scriptural discourses in specific cultural formations."--Paul Gutjahr, Ph.D., Ruth Halls Professor of English, Indiana University