James Bielo
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secondhandsacred.bsky.social
James Bielo
@secondhandsacred.bsky.social

Associate Professor, Dept. of Religious Studies, Northwestern University

James S. Bielo is an American socio-cultural anthropologist, specializing in the Anthropology of Religion, the Anthropology of Christianity, American Religion, Urban Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, and the study of Material Religion. He is an associate professor of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. He was awarded his Ph.D. in anthropology in 2007 from Michigan State University. With Carrie M. Lane, he is the series founder and co-editor of the “Anthropology of Contemporary North America" book series at the University of Nebraska Press. He is one of the founders of the AnthroCyBib, an online bibliographic resource for the anthropology of Christianity that is hosted by the University of Edinburgh. He is also a founder and co-curator of Materializing the Bible, an interactive, curated a catalogue of biblical themed environments that covers "Protestant, Catholic and, to a lesser extent Jewish and Latter-Day Saints sites, that in different ways transforms the Bible into physical, interactive and choreographed environments, for purposes of immersion, personal piety, religious education and conversion." .. more

Political science 31%
Sociology 25%
Pinned
Hi Bluesky! I’m James Bielo, an anthropologist of religion. Secondhand Sacred is my current work, exploring the circulation of Christian material culture thru 2nd economies. This includes a series of public exhibits, like Domestic Devotion & (Ir)Reverent Fun. Follow along for project updates!

An estate sale find from Friday. Also, the last new acquisition post of 2025! #secondhandsacred

Thrifted, 4 Spanish language gospel cassettes. #secondhandsacred

Thrifted, 2016 Minecraft New Testament. #secondhandsacred

Reprint of 1985 Jack Chick comic. One of 24 comics Chick made. #secondhandsacred

Bibles added over last 2 weeks. #secondhandsacred

2020; a new used copy purchased online #secondhandsacred

Some say for napkins, others for envelopes/mail. Either way, a nice addition to the Domestic Devotion exhibition theme. And I always like it when there are multiple price tags testifying to a social life in circulation #secondhandsacred

Reposted by Andrew Jacobs

Thrifted this icon yesterday, though haven’t seen the image before. Reverse image search no help. Does anyone know? #secondhandsacred

Shroud lenticular from the St Vincent de Paul thrift #secondhandsacred

The dexterity game/palm puzzle/patience game portion of the collection adds another. #ebaymethod #secondhandsacred #dexteritygames

Thrifted gospel vinyl. #secondhandsacred

Thrifted. I see many Divine Mercy prints, but this is the first stained glass-esque version I’ve come across. Designed to interact with light, I imagine it hung in windows that would catch the sun just so. #secondhandsacred

Thrifted, 1983 evangelical fitness LP. Adds to a little vein in the collection. You can watch a copy of the VHS version here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=so3l... #secondhandsacred

The latest Collecting Religion essay is live! Check out Valentina Gamberi's "Unexpected Sacredness: On Receiving Talismans as Gifts." collectingreligion.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/u...
Unexpected Sacredness: On Receiving Talismans As Gifts
by Valentina Gamberi Preamble: An Unusual Chinese New Year’s Eve New Taipei City, Chinese New Year’s Eve 2025. Two days later, I was to return to Europe after five months of fieldwork in Taipei and…
collectingreligion.wordpress.com

The Secondhand Sacred collection is safely home. It was enormously fun exhibiting at #aarsbl25 in Boston! So many wonderful conversations, stories, and moments of delight!! Thanks to all who stopped by and played along :) #secondhandsacred

Traveling light to @aarsbl25 this year. Secondhand Sacred will be at booth #430 Sat-Monday morning: swing by and say hi, listen to cassettes, click through View-Master slides, peer through a stereoscope, flip through vinyl and postcards and much more! #aarsbl25 #secondhandsacred

Thrifted, 1992 Lutheran cookbook #secondhandsacred

Another Utrecht gift for the collection. This biblical energy bar is courtesy of Ernst van den Hemel, which he picked up at the DC Museum of the Bible gift shop. For now, it’s residing in my campus office. #secondhandsacred

I grew up near Ottoman, VA - not even a small town, a tucked away corner of a rural county near the Chesapeake Bay. Maybe it’s my lingering naïveté, but it was delightful to find things like a 1983 Kansas Mennonite vinyl in a Utrecht thrift store. May our lives always be opening! #secondhandsacred

I had a really wonderful four days in Utrecht last week! This week’s posts will share some secondhand finds and gifts from the visit. First up, this holy water font from an antiques shop along the central canal. #secondhandsacred

An #ebaymethod find: stamps & fundraising brochure for Sermons from Science pavilion at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Back in June 2021 I spent a day in the Moody archives w/ their SFS materials. This included a report from the ‘62 Fair where they counted lots of things!

Excited to be here this morning to check out the new Aquí en Chicago exhibit!

Small estate sale haul from Friday. #secondhandsacred

Reposted by Andrew Jacobs

Thrifted, 1999 Bible game. #secondhandsacred

Two new Bible-themed dexterity puzzles, both #ebaymethod finds. Enjoying thinking with these objects as the set grows. #secondhandsacred

Reposted by James S. Bielo

I am THRILLED to announce that ARCHIVAL IRRUPTIONS is officially published with @dukepress.bsky.social! For those who would like to order the book, you can get 30% off using coupon code E25GRBNR at this link: www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica
www.dukeupress.edu

Hand painted icon sourced from Evanston antiques shop #secondhandsacred

View-Master premiered at the 1939 NY World’s Fair. Descendant of the stereoscope, ancestor of the VR headset. They are still made, though they stopped producing travel reels in 2008. These were found at an Evanston antiques store #secondhandsacred