The Religious Heritage Complex: Legacy, Conservation, and Christianity (Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion)

The Religious Heritage Complex examines religious institutions and heritage-making, arguing that the relationship between the two is not as clear-cut as some might think. In fact, the authors show that religious activity has always combined care for the past with conscious practices of heritage-making, which they term “the religious heritage complex.”

The book considers the ways patrimony, religion, and identity interact in different contexts worldwide and how religious objects and sites function as identity. It focuses on heritage-making as a religious and material activity for the groups in charge of a religious inheritance, and considers heritage activities as a form of spiritual renewal and transmission.

Case studies explore Christian, Afro-Brazilian, Muslim, and Buddhist traditions located in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. By investigating the longstanding and tightly-enmeshed connections that weave together religion and cultural heritage, this book allows us to think through the ambiguity of religious heritage.