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Introduction: Material Culture and Catholic History

After setting out some of the reasons Catholicism developed a rich array of devotional and liturgical objects, this introduction to the centennial special issue of The Catholic Historical Review on Catholic material culture traces a brief history of the emergence of material culture studies while noting the contributions of Catholic scholars to it. It also defines material culture and describes several of the field’s approaches as exemplified by essays in the special issue. Strengths and weaknesses of these approaches are also noted.