Material Religion

Scope & Guideline

Fostering Dialogue between the Material and the Divine

Introduction

Immerse yourself in the scholarly insights of Material Religion with our comprehensive guidelines detailing its aims and scope. This page is your resource for understanding the journal's thematic priorities. Stay abreast of trending topics currently drawing significant attention and explore declining topics for a full picture of evolving interests. Our selection of highly cited topics and recent high-impact papers is curated within these guidelines to enhance your research impact.
LanguageEnglish
ISSN1743-2200
PublisherROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
Support Open AccessNo
CountryUnited Kingdom
TypeJournal
Convergefrom 2005 to 2024
AbbreviationMATER RELIG / Mater. Relig.
Frequency4 issues/year
Time To First Decision-
Time To Acceptance-
Acceptance Rate-
Home Page-
Address2-4 PARK SQUARE, MILTON PARK, ABINGDON OX14 4RN, OXON, ENGLAND

Aims and Scopes

The journal 'Material Religion' serves as a platform for interdisciplinary studies that explore the intersection of material culture and religious practice. It focuses on how material objects, spaces, and practices shape religious beliefs and experiences across various cultural contexts.
  1. Material Culture and Religion:
    The journal emphasizes the role of material culture in shaping and expressing religious beliefs, rituals, and identities. This includes the study of artifacts, architecture, and everyday objects in religious contexts.
  2. Interdisciplinary Approaches:
    'Material Religion' encourages interdisciplinary research that combines insights from anthropology, sociology, art history, and religious studies to analyze the complexities of materiality in religion.
  3. Global Perspectives:
    The journal features research from diverse cultural and geographical contexts, highlighting how material religion manifests differently across the globe and in various religious traditions.
  4. Agency and Relationality:
    A focus on the agency of objects and the relational dynamics between people, objects, and spaces is central to the journal's exploration of how materiality influences religious practices.
  5. Historical and Contemporary Studies:
    The journal publishes both historical analyses and contemporary case studies, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of material religion over time.
Recent publications in 'Material Religion' have highlighted several emerging themes that reflect current scholarly interests and societal issues. These trends indicate a dynamic engagement with materiality in contemporary religious practices.
  1. Materiality and Digital Culture:
    There is an increasing exploration of how digital technologies intersect with material religious practices, reflecting the influence of online spaces and digital artifacts on contemporary spirituality.
  2. Embodied Practices and Sensory Experience:
    Recent studies emphasize the sensory aspects of religious experience, focusing on how physical engagement with objects and spaces shapes belief and practice.
  3. Environmental and Ecological Concerns:
    Emerging themes include the relationship between religion and environmental issues, examining how material practices reflect and respond to ecological challenges and sustainability.
  4. Globalization and Transnationalism:
    The journal is seeing a rise in research that investigates the impacts of globalization on religious practices, including the movement of religious objects and the hybridization of beliefs in transnational contexts.
  5. Politics of Materiality:
    There is a growing focus on the political dimensions of material religion, exploring how material practices can both challenge and reinforce power structures within religious communities.

Declining or Waning

As the field of material religion evolves, certain themes have seen a decline in prominence within the journal's recent publications. This shift reflects changing scholarly interests and the emergence of new topics.
  1. Traditional Textual Analysis:
    There has been a noticeable decrease in studies focusing solely on textual analysis of religious scriptures, as the journal increasingly prioritizes material and embodied practices that go beyond written texts.
  2. Static Representations of Religion:
    Themes centered on static representations of religious beliefs, such as iconography without context, are becoming less frequent as the journal shifts towards dynamic interactions between materiality and lived religious experience.
  3. Historical Exclusivity:
    While historical studies remain important, there is a waning focus on overly specific historical narratives that do not connect to contemporary material practices, as scholars seek more integrative approaches.

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