Corpses and the Protestant cult of the dead
Scholars of the body and religion readily acknowledge that corpses have agency. "The work of the dead," as Thomas Laqueur puts it, includes everything from sacralizing the landscape to creating imagined communities. Scholars have been less successful, however, in documenting the continuing...
| Published in: | Body and religion |
|---|---|
| Subtitles: | "Special Issue: Corpses and their material extensions in Protestantism" |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox Publishing
2020
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| In: |
Body and religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ Protestant
/ Corpse
/ Relationship
/ Commemoration of the dead
/ History 1750-1860
|
| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality CE Christian art KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBQ North America KDD Protestant Church NBK Soteriology |
| Further subjects: | B
Women
B Corpses B Material Culture B Cemeteries B Death B Protestantism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Scholars of the body and religion readily acknowledge that corpses have agency. "The work of the dead," as Thomas Laqueur puts it, includes everything from sacralizing the landscape to creating imagined communities. Scholars have been less successful, however, in documenting the continuing relations between ordinary Protestants and their departed loved ones. In their focus on cemetery designers and political leaders, historians have overlooked the spiritual journals - mostly by women - that document relations between the living and dead. This article argues that corpses were central to such relations, even for mainstream Protestants whose ministers insisted otherwise. This argument challenges the way most scholars think of Protestantism. Rather than considering it as a religion of internal beliefs and creeds, I emphasize the material and tactile foundations of Protestant belief. And rather than seeing a religion dedicated to maintaining the Reformation’s divide between the living and dead, I put relations with the dead at the heart of lived Protestantism. |
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| ISSN: | 2057-5831 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Body and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/bar.18103 |