{"title":"“Depicting Heavenly Reality”: Non-Textual Objects as Inscriptions of Belief","authors":"Héctor M. Varela Rios","doi":"10.1080/10477845.2022.2038045","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract That religious objects document religion is usually construed as fact. In this paper, I also confirm that fact via five “object stories” of believers, that is, the complex and diverse lived religion displayed through my informants’ (and my own) relationship with religious objects garnered through open-ended interviews and personal reflection, and also via material culture analysis using Jules David Prown. But what is *it* that religious objects document? Since the key word is document, I begin with Maurizio Ferraris’ “documentality” and its constitutive rule “Object = Inscribed Act.” I also realized during the interview process that my informants were describing and explaining beliefs in varying ways. To elucidate, I turn to David Morgan’s typology of belief. Construing belief as a social act, I formulate the “Ferraris-Morgan” constitutive rule of religious documentality: Religious Object = Inscribed Belief. My informants’ witness suggest that these objects are documents of belief: belief rediscovered, belief nurtured, belief distributed, belief used, belief identified—belief “depicted,” as one informant said. Yet, how authentic are these documentalities of belief? I use Orlando O. Espín to authenticate the “sensus fidei” depicted in these religious documents. Espín will also be helpful to ascertain what is at stake: the subversiveness they present to “official” Catholicism in general yet the preeminence they represent to everyday flourishing of believers.","PeriodicalId":35378,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religious and Theological Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Religious and Theological Information","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10477845.2022.2038045","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract That religious objects document religion is usually construed as fact. In this paper, I also confirm that fact via five “object stories” of believers, that is, the complex and diverse lived religion displayed through my informants’ (and my own) relationship with religious objects garnered through open-ended interviews and personal reflection, and also via material culture analysis using Jules David Prown. But what is *it* that religious objects document? Since the key word is document, I begin with Maurizio Ferraris’ “documentality” and its constitutive rule “Object = Inscribed Act.” I also realized during the interview process that my informants were describing and explaining beliefs in varying ways. To elucidate, I turn to David Morgan’s typology of belief. Construing belief as a social act, I formulate the “Ferraris-Morgan” constitutive rule of religious documentality: Religious Object = Inscribed Belief. My informants’ witness suggest that these objects are documents of belief: belief rediscovered, belief nurtured, belief distributed, belief used, belief identified—belief “depicted,” as one informant said. Yet, how authentic are these documentalities of belief? I use Orlando O. Espín to authenticate the “sensus fidei” depicted in these religious documents. Espín will also be helpful to ascertain what is at stake: the subversiveness they present to “official” Catholicism in general yet the preeminence they represent to everyday flourishing of believers.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Religious & Theological Information is an essential resource for bibliographers, librarians, and scholars interested in the literature of religion and theology. Both international and pluralistic in scope, this peer-reviewed journal encourages the publication of research and scholarship in the field of library and information studies as it relates to religious studies and related fields, including philosophy, ethnic studies, anthropology, sociology, and historical approaches to religion. By "information" we refer to both print and electronic, and both published and unpublished information.