RT Article
T1 The Material Turn in the Study of Religion
JF Religion and society
VO 4
IS 1
SP 58
OP 78
A1 Hazard, Sonia
LA English
PB Berghahn
YR 2013
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1667357670
AB Material things and phenomena have come to vie with belief and thought as worthy subjects of inquiry in the interdisciplinary study of religion. Yet, to the extent that we are justified in speaking of a "material turn", no consensus has arisen about what materiality is or does. This article offers a preliminary sketch of the diverse terrain of material religion studies, delineating three dominant approaches to religious materiality as well as an emerging alternative. It argues that the dominant approaches—respectively characterized by an emphasis on symbolism, material disciplines, and phenomenological experience—continue to privilege the human subject while material things themselves struggle to come into sharp focus. That is, they remain anthropocentric and beholden to the biases against materiality deeply entrenched in the study of religion. Such biases may be negotiated more successfully via the emerging alternative "new materialism".
K1 Material Turn
K1 Materiality
K1 New Materialism
K1 Phenomenology
K1 religion and material culture
K1 theory and method
DO 10.3167/arrs.2013.040104