Article on the semantic structure of the Bible awarded the Distinguished Article Award from the American Sociological Association’s Religion Section

Mark Hoffman accepts the award at the 2018 ASA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia

A paper written by Mark Anthony Hoffman, Jean-Philippe Cointet, Philipp Brandt, Newton Key and Peter Bearman to be published in Poetics has won the American Sociological Association’s Religion Section 2018 Distinguished Article Award. The award honors a peer-reviewed article that makes an outstanding contribution to the sociology of religion.

In the article, the authors reveal the semantic structure of the Protestant Bible by identifying certain topics. They begin by describing the organization of the Old and New Testaments, and then consider the uses of specific verses and sermons by Dissenters and Conformists. By mapping a semantic network of the Bible, the authors note a structure which highlights different contents reflecting denominations’ religious inspirations and concerns.