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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4916183
AutoresMichael Hubbard Mackay (0000-0003-1152-7142, Brigham Young University, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume16
Fascículo3
Páginas345-359
Data de publicação2020-05-26
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoMaterial Religion (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1743-2200 • E-ISSN: 1751-8342
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17432200.2020.1756165
OpenAlexW3028253788
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas10

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

Aesthetics · Art history · Religious experience · Sociology · Theology · Treasure · Computer Science · History · Mormonism, Religion, and History · Philosophy · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Religious studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices