Things: Religion and the Question of Materiality - Couverture souple

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0823239462 ISBN 13 : 9780823239467

Editeur : Fordham University Press, 2012

Synopsis

This volume addresses the relation between religion and things. That relation has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, privileging spirit above matter, belief above ritual and objects, meaning above form, and "inward" contemplation above "outward" action. After all, wasn't the opposition between spirituality and materiality the defining characteristic of religion, understood as geared to a transcendental beyond that was immaterial by definition? Grounded in the rise of religion as a modern category, with Protestantism as its main exponent, this conceptualization devalues religious things as lacking serious empirical, let alone theoretical, interest. The resurgence of public religion in our time has exposed the limitations of this attitude.

Taking materiality seriously, this volume uses as a starting point the insight that religion necessarily requires some kind of incarnation, through which the beyond to which it refers becomes accessible. Conjoining rather than separating spirit and matter, incarnation (whether understood as "the word becoming flesh" or in a broader sense) places at center stage the question of how the realm of the transcendental, spiritual, or invisible is rendered tangible in the world.

How do things matter in religious discourse and practice? How are we to account for the value or devaluation, the appraisal or contestation, of things within particular religious perspectives? How are we to rematerialize our scholarly approaches to religion? These are the key questions addressed by this multidisciplinary volume.
Focusing on different kinds of things that matter for religion, including sacred artifacts, images, bodily fluids, sites, and electronic media, it offers a wide-ranging set of multidisciplinary studies that combine detailed analysis and critical reflection.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Dick Houtman is Full Professor of Sociology of Culture and Religion at the Center for Sociological Research (CeSO), University of Leuven, Belgium. His principal research interests are the spiritualization of religion and the culturalization of politics in the contemporary Western world. His two most recent books are Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital (edited with Stef Aupers) and Farewell to the Leftist Working Class (with Peter Achterberg and Anton Derks). He is a member of the editorial boards of Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Politics and Religion, Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, and Sociologie.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Fordham University Press
• Date d'édition: 2012
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0823239462
• ISBN 13: 9780823239467
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 504
• Éditeur: Houtman Dick
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible