Sociotechnical Assemblages and Biblical Affects: A Response to Scripture and Secularism in Modern Scandinavia and Beyond

Building on the articles in this special issue and Hannah M. Strømmen’s biblical assemblages framework, this article suggests two key directions for future research on cultural and reception histories of Bible. First, it advocates for deeper investigation into socio-technical dimensions. Within the framework of biblical assemblages, technologies should not be understood simply as tools used by human actors but as assemblages of human and non-human agents embedded within larger assemblages, interacting with other agents to shape cultural meanings and social organizations of power. Second, it calls for increased attention to biblical affects. Analyzing Bibles exclusively as discursive objects, byproducts of language, misses the precognitive, extralinguistic forces of biblical affects that shape individual and collective experiences, relationships, and socio-political organizations. Just as religions come to life and exist as networks of affects, so do Bibles.