Materiality and the Study of Religion

Objects become sacred, and sometimes stop being sacred, through what people make, name and handle. This collection of thirteen chapters, edited by Tim Hutchings and Joanne McKenzie, takes up the material turn in the study of religion and asks what it has actually achieved. It follows a model set out in the opening chapter by David Morgan, tracing religious things through three phases: their production, their classification as religious or not, and their circulation and use.

The contributors bring new empirical research and theory from across traditions and regions. They look at how objects contest public space and resources and how belief is embodied in everyday life, with close attention to gender, age, ethnicity, memory and politics. Manuel Vásquez supplies the afterword. It is a clear, well-organised resource for students and scholars who want religion studied through its stuff.