Introduction

This introduction notes the importance to this study of Abby Day’s work on performative belief and practice-based belief and her concept of believing in belonging. It then explores Mia Lövheim’s proposal for more analysis of how people perform their faith in social/digital media and James Beckford’s proposal for a more nuanced look at faith performance. It begins to set up the difference between ‘therapeutic/anthropocentric’ and ‘propositional/theocentric’ construals of faith/belief. Pauline Hope Cheong’s work on the Bible and social media and Jeff Astley’s work on ‘ordinary theology’ are noted and the study is finally categorized as the ordinary social performance of Bible engagement in digital culture.