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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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Mackay, Michael Hubbard (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Taylor & Francis [2020]
Dans: Material religion
Année: 2020, Volume: 16, Numéro: 3, Pages: 345-359
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Smith, Joseph 1805-1844 / Stone / Fortune-telling / Religion / Materiality / Seclusion / Holiness / Heidegger, Martin 1889-1976, Sein und Zeit
RelBib Classification:AG Vie religieuse
AZ Nouveau mouvement religieux
KDH Sectes d’origine chrétienne
Sujets non-standardisés: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
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Résumé: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
Contient:Enthalten in: Material religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2020.1756165