Overview

This open access Handbook offers readers a state-of-the-art guide to the public debates and scholarship on religious heritage in contemporary Europe. It contains articles by scholars, policy makers and heritage practitioners, who explore the key challenges facing the organizations, churches, and government bodies concerned with religion and heritage. Featuring polemics, case studies, and analysis, the volume is united by major themes, including Jewish, Muslim and Christian heritage, the (post)secular, interreligious heritage, sacred texts, museums, tourism, and contemporary art. The book explores the shifting significance of Europe’s historic churches, synagogues, and mosques, many of which are caught between declining numbers of worshippers, increasing numbers of tourists, and the pressure to find new uses. It also examines the key role religious heritage plays in political discourse, both in the interest of including and excluding religious minorities. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

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9781350251380

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Reviews

This rich and nuanced handbook offers academics and heritage practitioners new perspectives on European religious legacies. It will provide intellectual and practical frameworks for exploring the highly heterogeneous religious heritage configurations in Europe. Contributions will feed public, professional and scholarly debates on religion and identity, ritual and materiality, diversity and nationalism, post-secular dynamics, minority empowerment and theoretical challenges to religion-heritage relations. * Cyril Isnart, Director of Research, National Centre for Scientific Research, France * This exciting, much-needed collection of timely essays opens an expansive window onto creative and thoughtful contemporary approaches to the preservation and use of both material and intangible religious heritage. An impressive range of international perspectives and voices—preservationists, scholars, artists, museum professionals, clergy, and community activists—illuminate the embodied tensions of complex religious places and histories (some long ignored), but also demonstrate how religious sites and artifacts can be catalysts for discovery, reconciliation, and meaning-making in a post-secular world. * Gretchen Buggeln, Professor of Art History & Humanities, Valparaiso University, USA * Politics underlies so many of these fascinating essays and the editors of this useful collection highlight that a newly diverse society requires a diverse heritage. What’s more, the book acknowledges Europe as a fast-secularising society where religion and heritage both call for negotiation of identity. Highly recommended. * Crispin Pane, Visiting Fellow, Open University, UK. *

Author Information

Todd H. Weir is Professor of History of Christianity and Director of the Centre for Religion and Heritage at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Lieke Wijnia is Head of Curation and Library at Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, and a fellow with the Centre for Religion and Heritage at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

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