Materializing Religion, Heidegger, and the Stability of Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones as Religious Objects

This article examines the stability of religious objects by asking how Joseph Smith’s seer stones, from which he dug for buried treasure and produced the Book of Mormon, were materialized into religious objects. This analysis challenges the assumed stability of material objects by demonstrating that...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mackay, Michael Hubbard (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2020]
In: Material religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 16, Issue: 3, Pages: 345-359
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Smith, Joseph 1805-1844 / Stone / Fortune-telling / Religion / Materiality / Seclusion / Holiness / Heidegger, Martin 1889-1976, Sein und Zeit
RelBib Classification:AG Religious life; material religion
AZ New religious movements
KDH Christian sects
Further subjects:B religious objects
B Material Religion
B Mormon studies
B seer stones
B Museums
B Martin Heidegger
B Latter-day Saints
B Joseph Smith
B Ann Taves
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:This article examines the stability of religious objects by asking how Joseph Smith’s seer stones, from which he dug for buried treasure and produced the Book of Mormon, were materialized into religious objects. This analysis challenges the assumed stability of material objects by demonstrating that the seer stones could potentially lose their religious qualities and values once they were examined, displayed, or explained. This is framed by using Martin Heidegger’s practical descriptions “ready-to-hand” and “present-to-hand” to explain the unstable nature of religious objects and why public examination and explanation of religious objects can potentially strip them of their perceived sacredness.
ISSN:1751-8342
Contains:Enthalten in: Material religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2020.1756165