Religionen greifbar machen?

Abstract

Making Religion Tangible: The »Material Turn« in Religious Studies. The article gives an overview on a current debate in religious studies. In former religious studies religion was equated with mental or spiritual transcendence, and thus texts and rituals reflecting on that were treated as the prime phenomena for research.However, recently, a different kind of interest in the material products in religious contexts has developed. They are not merely seen as visual expressions for aesthetic appreciation, but are rather treated as objects in their materiality in a system of signs. This leads further to a discussion on how any scientific perception is affected by the object of research and by scientific media of representation like text, film, or exhibition.