HERILIGION: The Heritagization of Religion and Sacralization of Heritage

Altertavle

PROJECT IS COMPLETED
Project period: September 2016 - March 2020

HERILIGION seeks to understand the consequences of the heritagization of religious sites, objects and practices which may not have been considered heritage before, and especially the relations between heritage and religious constituencies, and between different disciplines and management regimes; and the potential paradoxes between religious and secular sacralizations and uses.

What happens when religious sites, objects and practices are simultaneously considered heritage? Since World War II, cultural heritage is increasingly seen as defining identities and communities in times of change, and often what is now considered heritage was and still is seen as religious in nature and possibly sacred. Heritage, on the other hand, involves an explicitly secular gaze predicated on non-transcendant principles – historical, cultural, aesthetic. Heritagization might entail the sacralization of non-religious aspects of religious sites, objects and practices in a secular, immanent frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Leader

Oscar Salemink

Other participants

  • Ferdinand de Jong
  • Anna Niedźwiedź
  • Maria Clara Saraiva
  • Irene Stengs
  • Ernst van den Hemel
  • Clare Haynes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funded by

HERA logo

EU flag

HERILIGION is funded by Humanities in the European Research Area and the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and innovation programme

Project: Heritagization of Religion and the Sacralization of Heritage in Contemporary Europe (HERILIGION)
Project Leader: Oscar Salemink
Start: September 2016
End: March 2020