Material Religion: v. 1, Issue 2 The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief

From Shinto shrines to rosary beads, thangka paintings to missionary tracts, mass-produced posters to gravestones, religion is a material process. Charged with culturally-specific sacred meanings, religious objects have been used for purposes of worship, commemoration, art, and even subversion, and have been at the root of some of the world's most hotly contested struggles. Material Religion seeks to explore how religion happens in material culture - images, devotional and liturgical objects, architecture and sacred space, works of art and mass-produced artifacts. No less important than these material forms are the many different practices that put them to work. Ritual, communication, ceremony, instruction, meditation, propaganda, pilgrimage, display, magic, liturgy and interpretation constitute many of the practices whereby religious material culture constructs the worlds of belief. Highly visual in terms of content and in color throughout, this refereed journal seeks also to bridge the worlds of scholarship and museum practice, and to support all those seeking, at whatever level, to understand and explain the relationships between objects, art and belief.

Table of Contents:
Articles Material Expression and Maternalism in Mary Baker Eddy's Boston Churches: How Architecture and Gender Compromised Mind Jeanne Halgren Klide Agency and Affectivity of Paintings: The Lives of 'Chitrajis' in Hindu Ritual Contexts Woodman Taylor Mediated Sacralization and the Construction of Postmodern 'Communio Sanctorum': The Case of the Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh Johanna Sumiala-Seppanen and Matteo Stocchetti In Conversation Archeology and Politics: A Case Study of the Ayodhya Issue John Abraham Iconoclasm in the Era of Strong Religion Richard H. Davis Book Reviews Outlook

About the Author :
S. Brent Plate, Texas Christian University. David Goa, University of Alberta, Canada. David Morgan, Valparaiso Unviersity, USA. Crispin Paine is Visiting Fellow, University College Chichester.

Review :
'Material Religion is to be warmly welcomed as a key forum for a neglected area of research. With an impressive range of editors, the inter-disciplinary approach and the emphasis upon material culture in all its diversity will encourage new research on religion, both theoretically and methodologically.' Timothy Insoll, University of Manchester 'I cannot think of a religious tradition that does not depend on material objects for transcendence. In the Christian version, it has been said that you cannot even get the faith started without a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and a river. The editors will have their eye out for loaves, bottles, rivers, and their counterparts in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and the new religion down the block. Enjoying what these experienced and trustworthy folk publish should enhance the understanding of material motifs and artifacts in relation to spiritual and communal expressions.' Martin E. Marty, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, The University of Chicago 'Focus on doctrine, beliefs, and ideas has often ignored the myriad ways that people "flesh out" or "body forth" their religious sensibilities in objects and practices. Yet religious passions tend to cluster around devotional objects, images, and music rather than around beliefs that are unaccompanied by material signs. Material Religion will address a much neglected feature of religion, contributing substantially to the understanding of how religion works in people's lives.' Margaret Miles, Professor Emerita of Historical Theology, The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley