Materiality And Religion

Discuss the attitude toward materiality and material culture of a religious tradition of your choice

Material culture is an exceedingly prominent part of modern day society, and can be seen almost everywhere one goes. Material culture can be categorised in four ways: ‘artefacts, landscapes, architecture, and art’; our attachment to each category interacting and influencing the others. As we have developed as human beings, our dependence on objects has steadily increased, both physically and psychologically. This reliance on the material world has expanded to all areas of life and society, including religion. Religious figures, statues, artwork, books, and buildings are a standard feature across the globe, and this has been the case for many
centuries.

However, this aspect of material culture in religion is often under-studied by scholars. As Colleen McDannell writes, the material dimension of American Christianity is ‘overlooked’, when in fact it can provide us with rich information about the religion itself, along with the sociology and history of the people attached to the items. The attitudes of a religious tradition toward materiality also helps one to gain knowledge of how religious teachings and ideals influence their perspective on possession and worship of certain items. Approaches to material objects contrast greatly between different religions, but also within different schools of religious traditions. In this essay I will be specifically discussing the attitude of Christianity toward material culture.

Objects are more than just possessions; they can portray and represent a person and their lifestyle.
Individuals can specifically choose to own items that they feel best represent themselves, and therefore can sculpt how they are viewed by community and outsiders. Religious identity is an important aspect of the self, so over the ages humans have manufactured objects in order for this recognition to take place. Often, the religion of a person can be identified through their material belongings, including clothes, books, and household decorations. Not only does this ownership hold importance in identity, but ‘people build religion into the landscape, they make and buy pious images for their homes, and they wear special reminders of their faith next to their bodies’ in order to feel closer, and display commitment, to God. Items, therefore, have multiple functions and purposes - a cross pendant worn by an individual not only identifies them as a Christian, but also is a constant reminder to them of their faith and closeness to the
Creator.

But what is a sacred Christian item to one person can be absolutely insignificant to another. This is because objects are not inherently special by their own accord and existence. Things that would otherwise be un-sacred, ’gain significance when their human elements can be deciphered’. Therefore, an artefact is only religious when associated with the teachings and rituals imposed on them by humans. In order to decide what is recognised with religious importance, Emile Durkheim acknowledges that humans organise items into ‘opposing and distinctive categories of the sacred and the profane’. The profane are ordinary and unexciting items, but the sacred are provoking and spectacular. In Christianity, for example, ‘the space of the Church or temple are sacred; the home and workplace are profane’. Therefore, the concept of sacredness of items in Christianity has solely been driven by human attitudes towards materiality.

One of the most notable cases of this attribution within Christianity is the sacred elevation of the Bible.
Of course, the Bible was originally held in high esteem because it held the teachings and word of God, but this further developed into admiration of the physical book. In Victorian times, the Bible took special centre place within the family home, and was seen as a holy object in its own right. More than just a source of guidance and law, the Victorian Christians in America used the Bible to represent the family, placing it in the most important room of the house with ‘places for photographs’ and inscriptions of the births and deaths of family members. The Christian attitude toward materiality changed the Bible from a profane item of necessity into a sacred ornament and
decoration.

In Roman Catholic practice and belief, this appreciation of materiality is often celebrated. The ‘Catholic Church have ‘highlighted the divine connection with matter’, and embraced worshipping God through objects and imagery. The sacred and profane are combined together in many cases, and God’s manifestation in materiality is a regular occurrence. In Robert Orsi’s Between Heaven and Earth one can see ‘a cultural history of American Catholicism’. Orsi provides an insight to how Catholics often create relationships between ‘various saints, guardian angels, Mary and Jesus’, and how they then project the relationship onto certain items, such as figurines and venerating portraits and imagery of their chosen Saint. These connections formed with the Saints are often known to bring a sense comfort and safety to humans, especially those who are vulnerable positions. They purposely seek Saints how experienced hardship in order to seek comfort by realising ‘their own suffering is understood and held by a more powerful, sacred presence’. To be able to physically see manifestation of their Saints increases the authenticity of the relationship, as people want to ‘hear, see and touch God’. Without the Catholic context, these objects would usually be meaningless, but the spirituality and personality projected onto them makes the items of upmost importance. This is, once again, showing how it is humans who provide the artefacts with their spiritual meaning, as ‘material culture in itself has no intrinsic meaning of its own’.