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Material Religion in Private Space: Lived Religion in Germany

This note reports on a research and exhibition project by students from the Philipps University Marburg, Germany. Our project SinnRäume (spaces of meaning/sensual spaces) examined the materialization of individual religiosity in private spaces, and how this can be presented. We tried to approach these questions through our own research and twenty interviews. SinnRäume portrayed eight individuals and their living spaces in the form of photographs, quotations and texts. The Religionskundliche Sammlung (Museum of Religions) and the Department of Religious Studies gave us the freedom to develop our presentation ideas, and to display them in a special exhibition. Our interdisciplinary team developed its own solutions, starting with our first draft concept in 2014. We then developed a research design, evaluated our findings, produced design models, authored the text and layout, acquired funds, constructed the exhibition, and finally, saw its opening in October 2015. The result was an exhibition that strove to convey a variety of understandings about religion. We chose to approach the issue from an actor-oriented perspective, allowing the interviewees to speak for themselves by using direct quotations. The exhibits about Rahel, Thomas, Jessica, Tabish, Heike, Esther, Martina and Markus revealed different concepts of what religion is, and how this is materialized in religious (living) spaces and in their relationships to objects. The attribution of meaning and conceptions of spaces and objects are individually determined, and dependent on personal experiences. Esther, who describes herself as Roman Catholic, is greatly influenced by several trips to India. She became acquainted with Hindu and Buddhist practices and objects that she integrates into her everyday life: “I am not a Buddhist, certainly not, but I love the Buddhas because they remind me of India.” Personal living space is a place of everyday activity, where things are given meaning through their use and context. The Roman Catholic priest Thomas collects mementos: “This is my life as a priest. This is where I pray, where I think, where I work. And it is precisely the everyday of life that is written into this space—a life, which in all its aspects is marked by the Christian faith.” SinnRäume showed how individuals interact with things. Attributions of meaning and spatial concepts go hand in hand: in the course of communicative everyday practice, such meaning attributions are negotiated in a complex and subjective manner. Thus Esther’s statue of Buddha is given its own meaning: instead of calling upon a Roman Catholic priest, she and her family put notes with written apologies under the statue, which she compared to Catholic confession.