Material Religion

The material religious approach puts materiality at the centre of attention and asks how religions materialise. This perspective looks at more than religious objects such as pictures, statues, articles of daily use, ritual complexes, buildings or amulets and talismans. Material religion explores in a much wider sense how religion comes about on a material level. This approach investigates the embodiment of religions through actions and rituals as events which are the result of specific social, habitual and cognitive compositions. These compositions are imparted through the body, space and interplay with the material world. The interaction between actors and religious objects or settings is also looked at in the material religions approach.