Page - 11 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

Editorial | 11www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 7–12 cide exemplifies the persistence of writing involving ink and the human body. Indelible, the tattoos transformed the faces and hands of female genocide survivors in a permanent, publicly readable medium documenting dramatic, extreme processes in which religious identity played a crucial role. While we were editing these articles, the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States took place. The swearing-in of Joe Biden was the heart of this ceremony and involved a Bible held by the First Lady. In 2013 Barack Obama took his oath by placing his hand on two Bibles, which belonged to Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. Donald Trump also chose Abra- ham Lincoln’s Bible, along with his own, while Joe Biden preferred a large, 128-year-old family Bible. In this political ritual, the Bible is used as a thing, as a kind of materialisation of divine legitimation. Depending on the features, size, history, and owner of the book, the narratives evoked by this object are different: continuity in tradition, authenticity of faith, dignity of the office, political programme, and visions of the world are condensed in an oath prac- tice that is transmitted and received worldwide. In such a ritual, material and immaterial dimensions – the characteristics of the book as a stored text with a particular material appearance and the book’s relationship to spatial prac- tices and transmission processes as well as its links to identities – converge. Here was a striking illustration of the relevance of the questions we explore in this issue and motivation to research religious texts beyond the words they contain – as performing things. Bibliography Assmann, Jan, 2007, Kulturelle Texte im Spannungsfeld von Mündlichkeit und Schrift- lichkeit, in: Assmann, Jan (ed.), Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis. Zehn Studien, München: Beck, 124–147. Barad, Karen, 2003, Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Mat- ter Comes to Matter, Signs 28, 3, 2003, 801–31, https://doi.org/10.1086/345321. Chidester, David, 2018, Religion. Material Dynamics, Oakland: University of California Press. Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, promulgated by Paul VI, 1963, Vatican: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vat- ican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html [accessed 23 February 2021]. Hilgert, Markus, 2016, Materielle Textkulturen, in: Kalthoff, Herbert / Cress, Torsten / Röhl, Tobias (eds.), Materialität. Herausforderungen für die Sozial- und Kulturwissen- schaften, München: Fink, 255–267.