Light Mediations: Introduction

Abstract

This introduction argues that the study of light and lighting devices, and the light mediations yielded by them, is important for scholars of material religion. Discussing the four articles on aesthetics of light in Christianity, we argue that synthesizing metaphorical and physical uses of light allows for a deep understanding of the processes through which a professedly immaterial transcendent becomes real for religious practitioners in the material world. Inspired by these contributions and the two essays in the In Conversation section, we plead for a methodology of following the light in scholarly research.