affective associations of texts
ancient and modern academic imaginations
archival absences
biblical studies
book history
books
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Category=QRMF
Category=QRPF
Christianity
ephemeral texts
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forthcoming
Islam
Judaism
unmastering
unruliness
Product details
- ISBN 9780567715722
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 23 Jul 2026
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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This volume explores the idea of the unruly book, from books now known by their titles alone to books that subverted structures of power and gender. The contributors show how these books functioned as “sticky” objects, and they examine the story of what such books signified to the people who wrote, read, discussed, yearned for, or even prohibited them. The books examined are those of the first millennium of the Common Era, and the writings of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and related traditions. In particular, the contributors examine the bounty of books within this period that are hard to pin down, whether extant, lost, or imagined—books that challenge modern scholars to reconceptualize our notions of books (biblical or otherwise), religion, manuscript culture, and intellectual history. Through the critical analyses presented in this volume, the contributors negotiate the diverse stories told by unruly books and show that by listening to the stories that books tell, we learn more about the worlds that imagined and discussed them.
Esther Brownsmith is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Dayton, USA.
Liv Ingeborg Lied is Professor of the Study of Religion at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway.
Marianne Bjelland Kartzow is Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway.
