The Bibles of the Far Right

This study explores the role that Bibles have come to play in the worldview of the contemporary European far right. Taking the case of far-right terrorism in Norway on 22 July 2011 as a starting point, Hannah M. Strømmen argues that particular perceptions of “the Bible” and particular uses of biblical texts have been significant in staking claims to European identity in opposition to Islam. Such perceptions and uses are not only to be found in the case of far-right extremism. The Bible-use that this study maps operates more broadly in counter-jihadist writings, transnational right-wing movements, and conservative philosophy. Crucially, connections and continuities with past Bible-use are brought to light. Strømmen charts new directions for research in biblical studies, presenting a proposal for mapping how Bibles operate in the world as assemblages. Mapping biblical assemblages allows scholars of biblical reception to analyse diverse forms of Bible-use. Such mapping goes beyond the notion of the Bible as text to be read in order to address questions of agency, affect, and materiality. Ultimately, Strømmen proposes new ways to understand political Bible-use today in order to respond to violence inspired by biblical texts.

Hannah M. Strømmen is a biblical scholar specializing in the reception of the Bible in contemporary culture and politics. She is Senior Lecturer in Bible, Politics, and Culture at Lund University, and currently holds a Wallenberg Academy Fellowship. She has written widely on the impact of the Bible in literature, philosophy, and politics in the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. Before taking up her position at Lund, she was Reader in Biblical Studies at the University of Chichester, UK. She is a Fellow of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, where she participated in the interdisciplinary inquiry on religion and violence.