Material Religion

Abstract

This chapter presents a general overview of the ways in which scholars have defined and discussed the concept of material religion, with examples of how it manifests in different religious traditions. It provides an account of historic shifts that influenced the development of theoretical leanings. The chapter explores how material religion is recontextualized in public, secular spaces, such as museums, which are repositories and spaces for participation and exhibition. Ritual is among a number of key terms in material religion. Scholars of material religion commonly qualify its intellectual genealogy within religious studies as profoundly shaped by Christian, particularly Protestant, ideology. Postcolonial critique generally led to the “postmodern crisis” of the 1980s, a reckoning with the far-reaching, negative impact of the Enlightenment enterprise and colonialism. Material religion communicates dynamic social contexts and the lived experience of religion. This includes wide range of media that will only continue to advance and enhance peoples' religious and spiritual experiences.