The Presence of the Digital Word: A Semiotic Phenomenological Study of Users’ Experience with Print and Digital Bibles

Abstract This article compares users’ experiences with print and digital Bibles, examining how each impacts readers’ encounters with the Word. It uses semiotic phenomenology to study lived experience in participants from various denominations. It finds that print Bibles: provide the means to better trace relationships with others, a reader’s past selves, and God; are alternately valued for their pristine and tattered conditions, as different reflections of a reader’s faith; and, are ideally read at scheduled times, in quiet, homebound settings. Digital Bibles: are associated with public usage and happenstance reading occasions; are alternately appreciated and criticized for their electronic features and use on a multi-purpose device; and raise suspicions about others’ and a reader’s own usage of digital Bibles, as well as digital Bibles themselves. Reducing initial themes to broader ones of presence, authenticity, and being set apart, the research finally interprets and compares users’ lived experiences with each type of Bible.