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Bible journaling as a spiritual aid in addiction recovery

Dillon, Amanda orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-7929-6611 (2021) Bible journaling as a spiritual aid in addiction recovery. Religions, 12 (11). ISSN 2077-1444

Abstract
Bible Journaling is a trend of the past decade whereby readers make creative, visual interventions in their Bibles, using coloured pens and pencils, watercolours, stickers and stencils, highlighting texts of particular resonance. Journaling, in its more conventional written forms, has long been recognised as a pathway to spiritual development. Significantly, Bible journaling is almost exclusively practiced by women and has a high level of interpersonal interaction attached to it, through open and mutual sharing of these creations, through various online social media fora. Gleaned from the sharing of women who journal for spiritual support, this article examines the role Bible journaling plays in aiding recovery from drug addiction. Multimodal analysis is a methodological approach that provides a structured semiotic framework in which to closely examine every feature of a creation such as a journaled page of a Bible, to examine how the journaler has made meaning of a text through their interventions on the page. Appreciating every mark, choice and placement of image, colour, typography as a motivated sign revealing the interest of the creator, the sign-maker, a detailed multimodal analysis is conducted of one page of a recovered drug-user’s journaled Bible. As shall be demonstrated, profound insights into the appropriation of sacred texts for the spiritual life of a recovering addict can be gleaned in this process. Bible journaling reveals itself to be a highly valuable spiritual practice for those in addiction recovery. This interdisciplinary paper uniquely brings a methodological approach from the field of semiotics to the field of spirituality. Both the methodological approach and the subject of sacred text journaling may be of particular interest to spiritual directors, across many religions with a foundational sacred text, as a means whereby adherents can engage with a text in a deep, contemplative and creative practice that is personally, spiritually sustaining and motivating during a difficult phase of life.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Bible journaling; biblical spirituality; drug addiction; journaling addiction; addiction recovery; multimodality; multimodal analysis
Subjects:Humanities > Semiotics
Humanities > Religions
Humanities > Culture
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Theology, Philosophy, & Music
Publisher:MDPI
Official URL:https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110965
Copyright Information:© 2023 The Author.
ID Code:28266
Deposited On:17 Apr 2023 15:11 by Amanda Dillon . Last Modified 17 Apr 2023 15:11
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