The Spirit of Matter: Modernity, Religion, and the Power of Objects

Description

A range of meaningful objects—exhibits of human remains or live people, fetishes, objects in a Catholic Museum, exotic photographs, commodities, and computers—demonstrate a subordinate modern consciousness about powerful objects and their ‘life’. The Spirit of Matter discusses these objects that move people emotionally but whose existence is often denied by modern wishful thinking of ‘mind over matter’. It traces this mindset back to Protestant Christian influences that were secularized in the course of modern and colonial history. Contents Figures Preface Acknowledgments Introductions Chapter 1. The Auto-Icon Chapter 2. Toward a Methodology of the Concrete Part II. Fetish and the Fear of Matter Introduction Chapter 3. The Spirit of Matter Chapter 4. The Modern Fear of Matter Part III. Do Catholics See Things Differently? Introduction Chapter 5. Trophy and Wonder Chapter 6. Africa Christo! Chapter 7. “I Am Black, but Comely” Chapter 8. Seeing Things as Different Part IV. The Time of Things Introduction. Fetishizing the Commodity, in Real Time Chapter 9. Things in Time: Commodity Fetishism before Advertising Chapter 10. False Consciousness?: The Rise of Advertising In Lieu of a Conclusion. The Future of Things References Index