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Introduction: From Imagined Communities to Aesthetic Formations: Religious Mediations, Sensational Forms, and Styles of Binding
Abstract
Over the past decade, a host of studies probing into the relation between religion and media emerged in the interface of anthropology, sociology, media studies, religious studies, philosophy, and the arts. Moving beyond a view of religion and media in terms of a puzzling antagonism, in which two ontologically distinct spheres-the spiritual and the technological-collide, scholars now develop new approaches that regard media as intrinsic to religion. Rather than interpreting the at times spectacular incorporations of new media by religious groups as an entirely new phenomenon, the question raised is that of how a new medium interferes with older media that have long been part of religious practice. This understanding moves our inquiry out of the limiting field of binary oppositions, in which religion features as the Other of modernity and technology, whose eventual disappearance is presumed. The shift toward a new postsecularist vantage point from which to explore the rearticulation of religion in specific contemporary settings (Asad 2003; Taylor 2007) proves to be far more productive than debates about the decline of religion or its withdrawal from the public sphere undertaken from the paradigm of secularization. It allows us to take a fresh look at the salient appeal and public presence of diverse forms of contemporary religious expressivity (De Vries 2008).
... It is not about the silent, inner, personal relationship with God, but rather a sonorous chanting of powerful syllables, a highly public, audible, sensory participation. Echoing the intervention of Birgit Meyer (2009) and other scholars of religion, aesthetics and media who have helped reframe the field (e.g. Grieser/Johnston 2017), religious communities can be then redefined by moving away from mentalistic preoccupations with theological, doctrinal or scriptural dimensions, and focusing instead on "sensational forms" (Meyer 2009), or shared aesthetic, embodied and sensory ways of mediating the divine that are collectively performed and co-create the identity and sense of belonging of those who participate. ...
... Echoing the intervention of Birgit Meyer (2009) and other scholars of religion, aesthetics and media who have helped reframe the field (e.g. Grieser/Johnston 2017), religious communities can be then redefined by moving away from mentalistic preoccupations with theological, doctrinal or scriptural dimensions, and focusing instead on "sensational forms" (Meyer 2009), or shared aesthetic, embodied and sensory ways of mediating the divine that are collectively performed and co-create the identity and sense of belonging of those who participate. ...
This piece takes as a starting point a close reading of Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz’s work and connects it to ongoing debates intersecting the fields of religious studies, the anthropology of religion, sensory studies, Global South studies and decolonial theory. It argues that attention to the layered history of local language categories that articulate religious difference constitutes a form of intellectual labour towards epistemic justice.
... Turning away from a predominant cognitive apprehension of religion in the social sciences, they point to sensory experiences pervasive in religious practices. 8 Religion comes alive through touch, sight, smell, and feeling. In the case of the Qur'an, multiple sensorial experiences may be identi ed in Muslims listening, reading, reciting, writing, and also sometimes ingesting its parts. ...
In the well-known understanding of Qur’anic aesthetics, truth may be apprehended through revelation, nature, and history. This aesthetic is driven by signs and manifestations (āyāt) that point to the distinction between good and evil and between belief and disbelief. This aesthetic of clarity (bayān) is familiar to readers of the Qur’an. This essay points to a more complex aesthetic that occupies a place alongside it. It argues that this aesthetic is exemplified in verses that make a connection between beauty and disbelief and between beauty and belief. I offer an analysis of this ethic in a close reading of the root word z-y-n in the Qur’an. The words zīna (beauty, adornment), zayyana, and izzayyana (beautifying and adorning) intimate that belief and disbelief are mediated by beauty until the end of time. While most verses point to beauty obscuring belief, there are some that suggest that beauty is part of everyday experiences, including belief and truth. I show that this aesthetic mediation of belief and disbelief is a universal condition, one that generates an ethical empathy toward the belief of others. After presenting the semantic map of z-y-n in the Qur’an, I examine this complex aesthetic and its ethical implications in the intellectual history of Islam among theologians (mutakallims) and exegetes (mufassirīn).
... W ten oto sposób społeczność rozwija się wokół podzielanych obrazów i innych mediatyzowanych form kulturowych. To podzielanie, co warto podkreślić, nie polega po prostu na zgodnej interpretacji tych form i podobnie zgody co do ich znaczenia (jak uważa antropologia interpretatywna czy symboliczna), lecz na potencjale kształtowania przez te formy u osób zaangażowanych szczególnej wspólnej estetyki i stylu (Meyer 2009: 10). I dalej: "Rozumiany jako «forma formująca» styl w ten sposób służy tworzeniu formacji estetycznych, zarówno poprzez kształtowanie osób, jak i dostarczanie im rozpoznawalnych wyglądów, a w konsekwencji -tożsamości" (Meyer 2009: 11). ...
Practising Spisz Regionality: On the Discourse of Cultural Heritage, Part I: The text is the first part of an article on mechanisms of creating the regional cultural heritage of Polish Spisz. The area under discussion is a small part of a historical region whose main territory is part of today’s Slovakia. For hundreds of years, it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, hence its specific character and cultural distinctiveness. The first part of the article discusses the processes of aestheticization, reconstructionism and patrimonization of cultural heritage, while the second part discusses the processes of fossilization and articulation. As a result, contemporary regional cultural heritage becomes a kind of metacultural practice and commentary on the regional cultural legacy.
This paper explores the experiential reality surrounding the
Divine Liturgy, a Byzantine rite in Orthodox Christianity that has
remained central to Eastern practice globally since Late
Antiquity. The article draws on multi-sited ethnography in the
glocal context of the Orthodox Church of Finland (OCF), a
national church of minority and a site of multicultural
interaction. Our analysis shows participants articulate their
experiences with the Liturgy in an epistemology of interiority by
which (1) they constantly, if unevenly, and agentically engage
with the Liturgy in a form of individual, vernacular artistry. This
interiority is (2) both sensorial and interpretative, and (3)
ambivalently grounded in motifs of being “at home” and, at the
same time, “on a journey.” That is, participants from different
backgrounds make a connection to the Liturgy both as a
spiritual and a literal home, relating to different elements—
Finnish, Karelian, Byzantine, and Church Slavonic—in its
ritualistic aesthetics. At the same time, Liturgy emerges as a
perpetual journey of new openings and glimpses, informed by
past experiences and life trajectories, and participants relate to
these two aspects simultaneously.
Full-text available at:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/IPCSHG2B2Q43ZHJJUQ4G/full?target=10.1080/17432200.2024.2325315
Ethical encounters in cross‐cultural contexts have been a major concern in the anthropology of morality and religion, yet the dominant view assumes that processes of ethical transformation and conversion emphasize the centrality of texts and beliefs. These discussions are influenced by epistemological frameworks associated with Christian theology and practice. Yet studies of other religions have brought about challenges by either doubting whether ‘belief’ still serves as a fruitful analytical tool or stressing the diversity of non‐text‐driven and multimedia forms of conversion. Based on fieldwork in a Chinese Buddhist monastery in Tanzania, this essay examines how Buddhist monks from China seek to cultivate Buddhist spirituality among Tanzanian locals in an embodied and allegorical way. By ethnographically teasing out the Chinese Buddhist notion of jieyuan , it provides a way of understanding religious suasion not just as a rational and intellectual conversation, but also as a process of embodied illumination that induces gradual, inductive, sympathetic changes in others.
In scholarly analyses, as well as in popular representations and professional responses, the image of the city divided along ethnic and religious lines is encoded in dualistic metaphors of 'us and them' and 'our side and their side of the city'. Those imaginations of divided cities are based on the implicit (rather than explicit) assumption that the city dwellers of one ethno-religious group do not share senses of togetherness and community with the city dwellers of another ethno-religious group who may live on the 'other side' of the divided city. In this paper, we cross-fertilize literature on divided cities and sound studies to demonstrate how sound functions as a lens to explore not only senses of separation but also senses of togetherness among the city dwellers in a divided city. By using examples of calls to prayer, church bells, and ways in which music is performed and consumed, we argue that developing an attentiveness to soundscapes in contexts of ethnic conflicts helps not only to rethink binary definitions of divided cities but also to challenge taken-for-granted urban planning strategies in ethnically divided cities.
Within some religious collectivities, the use of digital media for rituals, gaining religious knowledge and community gatherings may be seen as a challenge to religious identity, thus provoking different attitudes. Drawing on practice theory of Schatzki, we analyse different attitudes to digital practices expressed by members of the Russian Orthodox Church as shaped by their perception of the affordances of digital media and practice normativity. Developing previous studies, we demonstrate that the normative assessment of digital practices becomes significant mainly for developing critical arguments. Approval of digital practices does not depend solely on religious norms, but also on users’ experience of leveraging digital media affordances. We show that acceptance and critique are not mutually exclusive, as both types of argument are intertwined.
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