Space, Religion, and Bodies: Aspects of Concrete Emplacements of Religious Practice
In: Journal of Religion in EuropeSearch for other papers by Martin Radermacher in
Current site
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This article takes up the implications of the spatial turn in the wider context of a material turn (Manuel A. Vásquez) and deals with concrete emplacements of religion. It argues that the concrete, material space of religious practice is not just a passive stage, but itself has ‘agency,’ i.e. it shapes and facilitates discourse and embodiment of human actors in space. The materiality of space influences sensory perception, communication and embodiment, and also relates to imaginations about space as well as social norms. The emplacement of religious practice is illustrated by examples of rooms of silence and rooms of Christian fitness classes in the United States. The article opens a research area at the interface of architecture, spatial studies, embodiment studies, and the psychology of perception – and intends to make this encounter productive for the study of religions.
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Anttonen Veikko , “Space, Body, and the Notion of Boundary: A Category-Theoretical Approach to Religion,” Temenos – Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion 41/2 (2005), 185–201.
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Cadge Wendy , Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012).
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Coleman Simon , The Globalisation of Charismatic Christianity: Spreading the Gospel of Prosperity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
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Coleman Simon , , “Of Metaphors and Muscles: Protestant ‘Play’ in the Disciplining of the Self,” in Coleman Simon , & Kohn Tamara (eds.), The Discipline of Leisure: Embodying Cultures of ‘Recreation’ (New York: Berghahn Books, 2007), 39–53.
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Comaroff Jean , Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985).
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Douglas Mary , Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966).
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Eliade Mircea , Das Heilige und das Profane: Vom Wesen des Religiösen (Frankfurt: Insel, 1990).
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Knott Kim , “Religion, Space, and Place: The Spatial Turn in Research on Religion,” Religion and Society: Advances in Research, 1 (2010), 29–43.
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Schüler Sebastian , , “Kreativität, Moral und Metapher: Gebetsräume als Orte imaginativer Praxis,” in Traut Lucia , & Wilke Annette (eds.), Religion – Imagination – Ästhetik: Vorstellungs- und Sinneswelten in Religion und Kultur (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), 213–234.
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Vásquez Manuel A. , More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
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Wilke Annette , , “Religion/en, Sinne und Medien: Forschungsfeld Religionsästhetik und das Museum of World Religions (Taipeh),” in Wilke Annette , & Guggenmos Esther-Maria (eds.), Im Netz des Indra: Das Museum of World Religions, sein buddhistisches Dialogkonzept und die neue Disziplin Religionsästhetik (Münster: lit, 2008), 206–294.
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Xygalatas Dimitris , “Effects of Religious Setting on Cooperative Behavior: A Case Study from Mauritius,” Religion, Brain, and Behavior 3/2 (2013), 91–102.
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2
Manuel A. Vásquez, More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 261.
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4
Vásquez, More Than Belief, 1; Birgit Meyer, Mediation and the Genesis of Presence: Towards a Material Approach to Religion (Utrecht: Universiteit Utrecht, 2012), 8, argues similarly.
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5
Vásquez, More Than Belief, 6; Sebastian Schüler argues in a similar direction when he suggests that neither biological determinism nor naïve constructivism do justice to the realityof lived religions (Sebastian Schüler, “Zwischen Naturalismus und Sozialkonstruktivismus: Kognitive, körperliche, emotionale und soziale Dimensionen von Religion,” Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft, 22/1 (2014), 5–36).
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7
See, e.g., David Morgan, The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).
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11
Kim Knott, “Religion, Space, and Place: The Spatial Turn in Research on Religion,” Religion and Society: Advances in Research, 1 (2010), 29–43.
-
13
Kim Knott, “Spatial Theory and Method for the Study of Religion,” Temenos – Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion 41/2 (2005), 158.
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16
Mircea Eliade, Das Heilige und das Profane: Vom Wesen des Religiösen (Frankfurt: Insel, 1990), 14–5.
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20
See e.g. Peter G. Richter (ed.), Architekturpsychologie: Eine Einführung (Lengerich: Pabst Science Publishers, 2008).
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22
Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966). Douglas’ point has been illustrated, e.g., in Jean Comaroff’s Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985), particularly 6–7, 217–18.
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23
George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, Leben in Metaphern: Konstruktion und Gebrauch von Sprachbildern (Heidelberg: Carl-Auer-Systeme, 2004).
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24
Hubert Mohr, “Religion in Bewegung: Religionsästhetische Überlegungen zur Aktivierung und Nutzung menschlicher Motorik,” Münchener Theologische Zeitschrift, 55/4 (2004), 310–324.
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32
Rainer Schönhammer, Einführung in die Wahrnehmungspsychologie: Sinne, Körper, Bewegung (Wien: Facultas, 2013), 33.
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34
Paul Pauli (ed.), Biopsychologie (München: Pearson Studium, 2007), 202.
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47
Wendy Cadge, “Négocier les Différences Religieuses dans les Organisations Laïques. L’Exemple des Chapelles d’Hôpitaux,” Social Compass 61/2 (2014), 178–194.
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50
R. Marie Griffith, Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 160 ff.
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56
Prominently e.g. Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
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Space, Religion, and Bodies: Aspects of Concrete Emplacements of Religious Practice
In: Journal of Religion in EuropeSearch for other papers by Martin Radermacher in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This article takes up the implications of the spatial turn in the wider context of a material turn (Manuel A. Vásquez) and deals with concrete emplacements of religion. It argues that the concrete, material space of religious practice is not just a passive stage, but itself has ‘agency,’ i.e. it shapes and facilitates discourse and embodiment of human actors in space. The materiality of space influences sensory perception, communication and embodiment, and also relates to imaginations about space as well as social norms. The emplacement of religious practice is illustrated by examples of rooms of silence and rooms of Christian fitness classes in the United States. The article opens a research area at the interface of architecture, spatial studies, embodiment studies, and the psychology of perception – and intends to make this encounter productive for the study of religions.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1258 | 196 | 15 |
| Full Text Views | 306 | 14 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 198 | 32 | 0 |
