Sensual Religion
Religion and the Five Senses
edited by Graham Harvey and Jessica Hughes
Sensual Religion demonstrates the value of paying attention to the senses and materials in lived religion and also leads the way for improved studies of religion as sensuality. Each of the five senses – vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell – will be covered by two chapters, the first historical and the second contemporary. The historical discussions focus on the sensuality of religion in ancient Greece, Samaria, Rome and Byzantium – including reflections on their value for understanding other historical and contemporary contexts. Chapters with a contemporary focus engage with Chinese, African-Brazilian, Sikh, First Nations and Metis, and Spanish Catholic religious lives and activities. Beyond the rich case studies, each chapter offers perspectives and arguments about better ways of approaching lived, material and performative religion – or sensual religion. Historical and ethnographic critical and methodological expertise is presented in ways that will inspire and enable readers to apply, refine and improve on their practice of the study of religions. In particular, our intention is to foreground the senses and sensuality as a critical issue in understanding religion and to radically improve multi- and inter-disciplinary research and teaching about the lived realities of religious people in this sensual world.
Sensual Religion demonstrates the value of paying attention to the senses and materials in lived religion and also leads the way for improved studies of religion as sensuality. Each of the five senses – vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell – will be covered by two chapters, the first historical and the second contemporary. The historical discussions focus on the sensuality of religion in ancient Greece, Samaria, Rome and Byzantium – including reflections on their value for understanding other historical and contemporary contexts. Chapters with a contemporary focus engage with Chinese, African-Brazilian, Sikh, First Nations and Metis, and Spanish Catholic religious lives and activities. Beyond the rich case studies, each chapter offers perspectives and arguments about better ways of approaching lived, material and performative religion – or sensual religion. Historical and ethnographic critical and methodological expertise is presented in ways that will inspire and enable readers to apply, refine and improve on their practice of the study of religions. In particular, our intention is to foreground the senses and sensuality as a critical issue in understanding religion and to radically improve multi- and inter-disciplinary research and teaching about the lived realities of religious people in this sensual world.
Introduction Graham Harvey Smell 1. A Pleasing Odour for Yahweh: The Smell of Sacrifices on Mount Gerizim and in the Hebrew Bible Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme 2. Wafting Incense and Heavenly Foods: The Importance of Smell in Chinese Religion Shawn Arthur Taste 3. The Taste of Religion in the Roman World Zena Kamash 4. Eating Myths: Religion Stated in Food Language Patricia Rodrigues de Souza Sight 5. Sight and the Byzantine Icon Angeliki Lymberopoulou 6. 'Seeing' my Beloved: Dar?an and the Sikhi Perspective Opinderjit Kaur Takhar Hearing 7. Resounding Mysteries: Sound and Silence in the Eleusinian Soundscape Georgia Petridou 8. Indigenous Song, the Sacred, and the Senses Byron Dueck Touch 9. The Texture of the Gift: Religious Touching in the Greco-Roman World Jessica Hughes 10. Touching, Crafting, Knowing: Religious Artefacts and the Fetish within Animism Amy Whitehead
- Edited by Graham Harvey
- Edited by Jessica Hughes
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