Performing the Bible

This chapter explores the phenomenon of performing the Bible; that is, transforming the written words of scriptures into materialized, experiential environments. Throughout the United States, the Bible is performed as replicas and re-creations of particular and general biblical scenes, characters, and stories through registers of museum, theme park, and garden. Distinctive insights into key dynamics of religious materiality and American religious history can be gained by closely analyzing the cultural production of sites that perform the Bible. Ultimately, the chapter argues that performing the Bible is a strategy for actualizing a problem that animates any and every lived expression of Christianity.