FORUM FOR ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURE

ANTROPOLOGICHESKIJ FORUM
RUS | ENG

Antropologicheskij forum, 2019, no. 43

 

“MATERIAL RELIGION” AS A SUBJECT AND A MANIFESTO IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES OF CHRISTIANITY: A Review of MINNA OPAS, ANNA HAAPALAINEN (eds.), CHRISTIANITY AND THE LIMITS OF MATERIALITY. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017, 296 pp.

Ekaterina Khonineva

European University at St Petersburg
6/1A Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
3 Universitetskaya Emb., St Petersburg, Russia
Institute for Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
9 Tuchkov Lane, St Petersburg, Russia
ekhonineva()eu.spb.ru

Abstract: The reviewed collection of articles constitutes a continuation of an academic discussion of material religion. On the basis of research in different cultures, the authors try to show the way Christians conceptualize, negotiate, contest and challenge questions of material aspects of religious life. They interpret materiality not merely and solely in a narrow sense, i.e. as specific ritual objects (candles, icons, altars, statues and so on), but as a set of historically and culturally specific relationships between material and immaterial / spiritual in a certain religious tradition. The criticism of the review mainly focuses on the disbalance between “theory” and “practice” in the material religion studies presented in this collection. In some articles, the ethnographic component often appears to be in the shadow of ambitious and recurring methodological manifests.

Keywords: anthropology of religion, materiality, media, semiotic ideologies.

Acknowledgements: The review was prepared with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 19-09-00420 (“Pilgrimage in Post-secular World: Infrastructure and Practices of Creating Spiritual / Religious Experiences”).

To cite: Khonineva E., ‘“Material Religion” as a Subject and a Manifesto in the Social Studies of Christianity: A Review of Minna Opas, Anna Haapalainen (eds.), Christianity and the Limits of Materiality. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017, 296 pp.’, Antropologicheskij forum, 2019, no. 43, pp. 153–171.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2019-15-43-153-171

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/043/khonineva.pdf