Leiden University Scholarly Publications

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Pels, P.J. (2023)

The spirit of matter: modernity, religion and the power of objects

Book (monograph)
The Spirit of Matter discusses excessive objects: those things that move people but whose existence is often denied by modern wishful thinking about ‘mind over matter’, and that things are supposedly ‘dead’. Such wishful thinking can be traced back to Protestant Christian influences, that were secularized in the course of modern and colonial history. A range of excessive objects – exhibits of human remains or live people, fetishes, objects in a Catholic museum, exotic photographs, commodities, and computers – demonstrate a subordinate modern consciousness about powerful objects and their ‘life’. If humanity wants to survive current planetary socio-ecological crises, it should learn from its humility towards both artefacts and non-human things.
Material culture
Modernity
Religion
Fetishism
Capitalist culture
Museums
All authors
Pels, P.J.
Date
2023-07-01
Edition
1
Publisher
New York/Oxford: Berghahn
ISBN (print)
9781805390145
ISBN (electronic)
9781805390152
DOI
doi:10.3167/9781805390145