Materializing Religion: Expression, Performance and Ritual

by William Keenan, Elisabeth Arweck (Editor)

The material symbol has become central to understanding religion in late modernity. Overtly theological approaches use words to express the values and faith of a religion, but leave out the 'incarnation' of religion in the behavioural, performative, or audio-visual form. This book explores the lived experience of religion through its material expressions, demonstrating how religion and spirituality are given form and are thus far from being detached or ethereal. Cutting across cultures, senses, disciplines and faiths, the contributors register the variety in which religions and religious groups express the sacred and numinous. Including chapters on music, architecture, festivals, ritual, artifacts, dance, dress and magic, this book offers an invaluable resource to students of sociology and anthropology of religion, art, culture, history, liturgy, theories of late modern culture, and religious studies.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2006

Reviews

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A selection of inbreeding chapters - I picked this up for the chapter on "wrapping" Quaker religious expression in implicit and explicit rules, but stayed for other perspectives and especially appreciated the two chapters on modern Pagan rituals and the one on the separation of lay and monastic Tibetans in the USA.