Sensual Religion

Graham Harvey is Professor of Religious Studies at the Open University, UK. His research is concerned with the performance and rhetoric of identities among Jews, Pagans and indigenous peoples. He is particularly interested in the new animism, embracing relational and material approaches to interactions between humans and the larger than human world. His recent publications include The Handbook of Contemporary Animism (2013) and Food, Sex and Strangers: Understanding Religion as Everyday Life (2013). Jessica Hughes is a Lecturer in Classical Studies at The Open University. She works on material religion, classical reception studies and the cultural history of the Italian region of Campania. She has recently published the monograph Votive Body Parts in Greek and Roman Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and is currently researching material religion and cultural memory at the Catholic Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in Pompeii.

Introduction Graham Harvey Smell 1. A Pleasing Odour for Yahweh: The Smell of Sacrifices on Mount Gerizim and in the Hebrew Bible Anne Katrine de Hemmer, University of Copenhagen and University of Helsinki 2. Wafting Incense and Heavenly Foods: The Importance of Smell in Chinese Religion Shawn Arthur, Wake Forest University Taste 3. The Taste of Religion in the Roman World Zena Kamash, Royal Holloway, University of London 4. Eating Myths: Religion Stated in Food Language Patricia Rodrigues de Souza, Pontifical University of Sao Paulo, Brazil Sight 5. Sight and the Byzantine Icon Angeliki Lymberopoulou, The Open University 6. `Seeing' my Beloved: Darsan and the Sikhi Perspective Opinderjit Kaur Takhar, University of Wolverhampton Hearing 7. Resounding Mysteries: Sound and Silence in the Eleusinian Soundscape Georgina Petridou, Liverpool University 8. Indigenous Song, the Sacred, and the Senses Byron Dueck, The Open University Touch 9. The Texture of the Gift: Religious Touching in the Greco-Roman World Jessica Hughes 10. Touching, Crafting, Knowing: Religious Artefacts and the Fetish within Animism Amy Whitehead, University of Wales Trinity St David