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Seolwi-seolgyeong is a Korean shamanistic ritual in which shamans recite scriptures while being seated. This ritual suggests a comprehensive way of performing scriptures; scriptures are recited, written and materialized so that their sacred status is secured and their power is maximized. The recitation is the nucleus of this ritual. Though lay participants do not understand the meaning of recited scriptures, they regard the recitation as effective because the gods and evil spirits are thought to understand it. For seolwi-seolgyeong to be most efficacious, the recitation of scriptures should be supported by the materialization of scriptures. Evil spirits become frightened by reading the paper banners on which the names of gods and other words of scriptures are written. Geometric paper figures that depict gods visually scare evil spirits and those that reflect the scriptures’ cosmology can hedge them in and trap them. In this ritual process, scriptures are privileged and distinguished as sacred beings in several ways. First, scriptures are ritualized when shamans and other participants in seolwi-seolgyeong treat the scriptures as no less than the words of the gods. Second, reciting the scripture is equated with the proclamation of divine words. This ritualization is considered more effective when scriptures are recited more skillfully. Third, the contents of scriptures are also ritualized when they are considered so sacred as to subdue evil spirits and heal patients and when shamans materialize the contents into paper figures on the basis of their interpretation of the cosmology and theology in scriptures.

This article argues that miniature sutras allow Korean Buddhists to feel Buddha's presence and protection in their daily lives. Miniature sutras are so small that they are difficult, if not impossible, to read, but these texts are not intended for study. Instead, the mere presence of these miniature sutras is thought to be efficacious. Many Korean Buddhists possess small Buddha statues at home into whose hollow bellies they insert miniature sutras. To those Buddhists, sutras, which are the dharma of the Buddha, activate the statues and turn them into the Buddha himself. In addition, they believe that miniature sutras in their hands or pockets bless them and protect them from evil. Scriptures as the word-body of the Buddha are thought to work for Buddhists irrespective of their semantic content, and without any explicit ritual recitation or repetition.

Many scholars assert that the Bible study meeting, which has public scripture reading as its central feature, played a crucial role in the rapid growth of Korean Protestantism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most scholars agree that the Bible study meeting promoted “the Great Revival,” which led to a fourfold increase in church membership in Korea between 1903 and 1907. These meetings have not been widely studied by academics. Analysis of the Korean public scripture reading from a comparative perspective provides a vivid illustration of the social function of the performative dimension of scriptures, but it also suggests the need to further define the meaning of “performative.” As to the first point, the particular ways in which the Bible was read in the Korean context contributed to the growing number of converts to Christianity. Bible readings in the context of study groups in early Korean Protestantism facilitated the absorption of Christianity into Korean culture by building on traditional religious practices and by offering a way for native Koreans to take the lead in the growth of the new religion. Second, these scripture readings were performative in the way defined by J. L. Austin’s theory of performative speech and elaborated by Roy Rappaport’s description of the indexical function of ritual, because they affected Koreans’ conversions into Christianity and strengthened their Christian faith. Austin’s necessary conditions of performative utterances were satisfied through ritualization of the activity of reading and ritualization of the Bible itself.