Page - 28 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

28 | Erich Renhart www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 13–32 Burning Books While libraries have gone up in flames accidentally,21 there is also a rich record of deliberate burnings of books, even up to today. The act of burning a book can express many things. Historically, it has often been an act of censorship or aggression or a response to offence-taking born out of political or religious ideology (fig. 9). In this sense, the annihilation of the book not only extermi- nates the object but also challenges the identity, even the soul, of a person or social group. In some cases, we can speak of “cultural genocide”, when we see a deep disdain of books or even fear-created by their mere existence. A very different custom in connection with book burning can be observed in some Eastern churches: religious books which have fallen out of use, which are too tattered to be repaired, for example, are prescribed to be destroyed by fire. This practice constitutes a ritual burning of religious books when they have come to the end of their life (fig. 10). 21 See e. g. Báez 2008. Fig. 9: A partly burnt codex (Yerevan, Matenadaran, MM. ms. syr. 8). (Photo: E. Renhart)