2013/01/01 · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Biblical Studies and Interpretation #Christian Theology and Mission #Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies #Materiality (auditing) #Sociology #Anthropology #Agency (philosophy) #Material culture #Social life #Archaeology #Aesthetics #Social science #History #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.5040/9781472551207
openalex publication_date 2013/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Religion, Material Culture and Archaeology offers a new understanding of the materiality of religion. By drawing on the field of archaeological theory and method, the relationship between religion and material culture is explored. It is argued that the material elements of religious life have been largely neglected by the discipline of religious studies, while at the same time religion has been traditionally seen as problematic for archaeologists. Why do we not talk of the discipline of the archaeology of religion, in the same way we do the anthropology of religion, or the sociology of religion? The volume considers the historical problems of approaching the material elements of religious life and bridges the methodological gap between religious studies and archaeology by proposing a new way of understanding the materiality of religion - as active, engaged and projecting a level of autonomous social agency. Finally, the critical examination of archaeological approaches to