Page - 197 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

Book Review: Material Christianity | 197 Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati Book Review Christopher Ocker / Susanne Elm (eds.), Material Christianity Western Religion and the Agency of Things Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures 32, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2020, 249 pages, ISBN 978-3-030-32017-1 Material Christianity: Western Religion and the Agency of Things is a collection of essays that focuses on the role of things in shaping religious practices, iden- tities and thinking. The chapters analyse different dimensions of materiality from various disciplinary perspectives – e. g. history, history of art, theology and religious studies, South Asian studies – bringing together approaches and methodologies from a broad range of epochs and cultures. In this sense, the title is misleading, since the spectrum of case studies is broader than Chris- tianity or Western religion, which remains a diffuse category. Highlighting the crucial role and effect of things on practices and beliefs, the book shows in an exemplary way how detailed analysis of individual or shared religious ritual and thinking in past and present resists academic generalisations and conceptualisations. The volume is organised into two distinct parts. The essays in the first part are categorised under the title “Bodies”. In her contribution on “Cimabue’s True Crosses in Arezzo & Florence”, Henrike Lange analyses crucifixes at the heart of various material practices. Lange considers selected works, following their long histories through phases of material degeneration and restoration. The case of the crucifix is particularly significant since this object performs visually and materially the incarnation of Christ, the material practice at the core of Christianity. Christopher Ocker, who is also a co-editor of the volume, analyses in “Resacralising the Media of Grace” the role of materiality within DOI: 10.25364/05.7:2021.1.11 www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 197–199