We usually use "The Bible" as interchangeable with "the Christian Bible", which is just a loose collection of stories which became culturally dominant for <SO_MANY_REASONS>. This is called a "canon". While big, it's not all inclusive. There are tons of extra Bible out there, for the fans who just can't get enough.

We already have an understanding of "canon" for franchises / fictional universes, e.g. "Marvel Studios" has its own canon, "Homestuck" plays with the concept of canon a bit, whatever. We also have an understanding of cultural canons; e.g. "ORLY?" used to be part of the cultural canon of the internet. Or Rick Rolls. And we have some loose understandings of canons within trades.

But, very few Bibles!

For example, if I were to compile a canon of introductory texts to a certain brand of academia-adjacent software engineering, I might include Djikstra's "Go To Statement Considered Harmful", maybe the Tanenbaum-Torvalds debate (super charitable name for a flame war), an entire copy of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, the How to Write Unmaintainable Code essay, maybe Grace Hopper's WikiQuote page, at least several dozen XKCDs, and some James Mickens articles. That would make a solid "The Bible", I think.

But there are so few 'The Bible of X' out there. I think a Bible is actually a fantastic way of propagating ideas. The 3D Mario games almost form their own bible. I would love if there were a "The Bible of Communist Theory" out there. I've read the Communist Manifesto three times and I still don't get most of it.

Plus, even if the content gets dated, it'd still provide a culturally useful touchpoint. I'd love a "The Bible of Second Wave Feminism", for example, even if I might think some of it is dated.

Sometimes, things like "The Sonic Bible" refer not to, say, the central games to the Sonic franchise, but instead are reference documents for maintaining consistency throughout a franchise. We have The Doom Bible, The Halo Bible, etc.

But, properly speaking, the "Halo Bible" would just be "Halo: The Master Chief Collection", the "Doom Bible" would be the four 90s releases and the two reboot releases, and the "Sonic Bible" would be something none of the fans would agree on.

The only community I know of that has an "agreed upon set of central texts* is fucking LessWrong, which, lol, lmao. Tumblr's closest thing is its "world-heritage-posts" account.

The Bible of Christianity has unfairly stolen the term 'Bible'. Fight back by making a Bible for your favorite thing TODAY