No One Has Ever Seen God: The Use of Religious Archives for Nonreligious Purposes

Abstract

The use of religious archives for nonreligious purposes is not a recent trend. A trend that has emerged recently is the extent to which religion-oriented archives and special collections have profoundly affected research and teaching in subject areas having little or nothing to do with religiosity. Not only have religious archives contributed to pedagogy in these areas in a profound way, but recent trends have transformed them from religious family history/genealogy centers and institutional memory repositories into secular teaching and learning centers. The article observes the use of religious archives and other religious materials in recent years. The natural assumption to expect primarily religious research to be occurring in religious archives and to find primarily religious topics in the religious literature is not often the case. Has the potential to research religious subjects in religious archives been exhausted? The use of religious archives and religious materials for nonreligious purposes is continuing and growing. Is this trend the future for religious archives?