Religion, Art, and Visual Culture: A Cross-Cultural Reader

by S. Brent Plate (Editor)

Religion, Art, and Visual Culture is a cross-cultural exploration of the study of visuality and the arts from a religious perspective. This forward looking and accessible collection gathers together the most current scholarship for those interested in art, religion, visual culture, and cultural studies. Inherently interdisciplinary, this reader approaches the study of world religions through the human, meaning-making activity of seeing. The volume oscillates between specific visual subjects (painting, landscape gardens, calligraphy, architecture, mass media) and the broader theoretical discourses which are relevant to Humanities students today.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Judaism

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 2002

Reviews

[Emma Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite difficult to get into compared to other works by Brent Plate. Some interesting and thought provoking chapters on how our eyes perceive sacred objects and the visual culture of major religions.

The pictures included in the book to illustrate some key arguments are poor quality which is disappointing.

[Neil R. Coulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

S. Brent Plate's Religion, Art, and Visual Culture is an edited reader. That is, it isn't a volume of original chapters or essays created just for this book; it is a collection of excerpts from previously published works. It's a great idea, though I found the excerpts a bit too abbreviated. Most of the chapters are only a few pages long, which makes the whole book a very quick read, but it also gives only the smallest glimpse of the larger context. Plate uses this collection in teaching undergraduates, and perhaps this works for that context. But I do wonder if it's a bit too quick even for that setting.

Brief though the excerpts are, taken together they give a teasing glimpse of an intriguing world of scholarship. Plate has organized the book into sections, each of which looks at a world religion (Christianity, Islam, Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism)and a topic related to visual perception, reception, or understanding. I found it to be a fascinating panorama, and I hope to dig deeper into a number of the sources presented.

A standout chapter for me was James E. Young's excerpt from The Texture of Memory, which considers alternative ways of understanding the effects of memorials. I also liked Richard B. Pilgrim's concise definition of "religious art":

"It might be useful to think of religious art as that type of religious experience which representationally symbolizes, presentationally embodies, and performatively transforms varying life situations with the context of an understanding of sacrality and by use of aesthetic form (visual, performing, and literary arts). (136)

The biggest disappointment of Plate's volume are the images reproduced throughout the text. It's hard to describe just how awful the quality of these images is. I don't know how it's possible that they turned out so poorly. In a book that's all about visual perception, this is unbelievable. I want to believe that if I keep staring at the picture on page 179, I will eventually figure out what it is; but no luck so far. Fortunately, it's not too difficult to find higher quality pictures online. I've done this, and have posted the pictures I found here, for anyone else who can use them while reading the book.

[Anne Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice tour through the field of religion and visual culture. I like how the editor picked a major form of visual culture for each religion, as this helped make it more readable. Selections from this are ideal for an undergraduate class in the areas of visual/material culture, pop culture, cultural studies, etc, and religion. However, I have had students struggle to understand a couple of the readings, and some portions might be advanced for intro courses. The "Darshan" section is particularly recommended.

[Allen O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this volume. It gives the reader a smattering of texts from the scholars of different world religions and case-specific explorations of sacrality and visual culture. Plate does a fantastic job curating and introducing each portion, making the whole very readable.