Constitution as Political Back-Drop

 

The presidential candidates' rival town halls were most interesting to me for their very different choices of iconic staging. While Donald Trump's stage featured a huge star on a circular red field, reminiscent of Captain America's shield, Joe Biden chose to portray himself with a picture of the U.S. Constitution as a backdrop, located in the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

 

The calligraphy of the Constitution's opening phrase, "We the People," is iconic in American politics. Its reproduction often appears in left-wing and right-wing protests and its iconography can be touted by conservative pundits. President Barack Obama, with whom Biden served as Vice President, gave a memorable speech about closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp while standing in front of the Constitution's manuscript in the rotunda of the National Archives. 

So Biden's staging not only represents his fidelity to the rule of law in implicit (and often explicit) contrast to the current President. It may also be evoking his connection to Obama, which he regularly highlights.

SCRIPT research in reference articles

 

 SCRIPT research is beginning to find its way into Reference articles. Unfortunately, these are behind pay walls, but those whose institutions subscribe may find some interesting summaries here, and potential reading assignments for classroom use, too.

•    Dorina Miller Parmenter, “Material Scripture,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Arts (ed. T. Beal, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), in Oxford Biblical Studies Online, http://www.oxfordbiblicalcstudies.com/article/opr/t454/e97.
•    Seth Perry, “Bible formats and Bindings,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in America (ed. Paul Gutjahr; Oxford, 2017). In Oxford Handbooks Online, https://10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190258849.013.43.
•    Katharina Wilkens, “Text Acts,” in The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Cultural and Cognitive Aesthetics of Religion (ed. Anne Koch, Katharina Wilkens; London: Bloomsbury, 2019).
•    Three entries in The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Bible (ed. Sam Balentine; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020):

o    James Watts, “Ritualizing Iconic Jewish Texts,” https://10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190222116.013.16.
o    Dorina Miller Parmenter, “Ritualizing Christian Iconic Texts,” https://10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190222116.013.14.
o    Jonas Svensson, “Ritualizing Muslim Iconic Texts,” https://10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190222116.013.15.

•    James Watts, “Materiality of Scripture—1 General,” in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, Berlin: DeGruyter, 2020. 57-63.

They have been added to the Categorized Bibliography of Iconic Books.