Associate Professor of American Religion and Culture, Department of Theological Studies, and Co-Director, Lived Religion in the Digital Age, Saint Louis UniversityAuthor of A Communion of Shadows: Religion and Photography in Nineteenth-Century America (University of North Carolina Press, 2017) and co-editor, with Emily Suzanne Clark, of Digital Humanities and Material Religion: An Introduction (DeGruyter, 2022).
This chapter explores death and mourning pictures within a shifting memorial culture that was roo... more This chapter explores death and mourning pictures within a shifting memorial culture that was rooted in historical modes of representation and theologies of redemption. Over the course of the nineteenth century, photographic portraiture emerged within this memorial culture as both the preferred iconography of mourning in nineteenth-century America and, significantly, as a relic of the departed that disclosed future glory to the bereaved. In this chapter, I explore the role of photographs as relics that illuminated the communion of shadows by mediating the body of the deceased with the grieving body of the bereaved. Here, photographs were devised not as tokens of the moldering body of the deceased but of promise of celestial reunion in glory. As memorial portraiture focused attention on the body of the deceased, another facet within the communion of shadows purported to provide evidence of the soul’s survival after death.
<p>In 1900, Kodak released "The Brownie" camera, which opened picture-taking to a... more <p>In 1900, Kodak released "The Brownie" camera, which opened picture-taking to a wide array of people from various socioeconomic statuses, ethnicities, and regions. Lindsey notes that with this change, photographs shifted from individual acts of beholding to objects that contained narrative cues. The introduction of ambiguity also arose: photographs didn't just authorize identity, but confuse it. Finally, the Brownie changed American religion by extending the communion of shadows into previously uncaptured and more daily religious activities: missionaries could capture and document their experiences abroad; families recorded baptisms and holidays; and individuals captured the saints and ghosts they encountered in their daily lives.</p>
Scholarly discourse evaluating the digital turn in biblical and religious studies is at an early ... more Scholarly discourse evaluating the digital turn in biblical and religious studies is at an early stage in its development, as attested to by the creation of two new book series in 2016: Introduction to Digital Humanities: Religion (IDH, de Gruyter), and Digital Biblical Studies (DBS, Brill). Previously, Heidi Campbell published an overview of the topic (Campbell 2013), developed in further publications (Campbell-Althenhofen 2015, Campbell-Garner 2016). In a recent overview, Carrie Schroeder develops two central questions on the topic: “what does it mean for Biblical Studies to be marginal to the Digital Humanities when DH is a field positioning itself as transformative for the humanities? How can our expertise in Biblical Studies influence and shape Digital Humanities for the better?” (Schroeder 2016). Using her field, Coptic studies, as an example she shows that the particular skills and needs of a marginal field within a marginal field can be a strong driver in DH. Consequently, a...
<p>This chapter explores the communion of shadows through the optical marvel of the stereos... more <p>This chapter explores the communion of shadows through the optical marvel of the stereoscope. First developed in the decades before the invention of photography, stereographs began as simple drawings designed to explore binocular vision by simulating dimensional depth on a flat surface. With the invention of the daguerreotype and subsequent print photography, stereographs became immensely popular forms of nineteenth-century visual culture. The effect of dimension was accomplished by positioning two nearly exact photographs side by side and viewed through prismatic lenses fitted into a hood, a contraption known as a stereoscope. Like halftone tours and biblical photographs, stereographs of the Holy Land invited beholders to dismiss the photographic contemporary in their sights on a biblical imaginary. But through the visual sensation of the stereoscope, beholders imagined themselves transported into the biblical past in a way other photographic technologies had not enabled.</p>
<p>Intense debates around spirit photography started immediately upon its discovery in late... more <p>Intense debates around spirit photography started immediately upon its discovery in late 1862. This chapter frames these debates around the career, trial, and demise of America's first and most notorious spirit photographer, William Howard Mumler. In the context of the American Civil War, Mumler claimed to have discovered a gift for photographing spirits of departed souls and immediately became the subject of public interest and scrutiny. His uneasy affiliation with modern Spiritualism, his public ridicule by the photographic guild, and his brief celebrity in the 1860s provide a window into the at times intense uncertainty around the camera's ability to reveal spiritual truth to modern beholders. His hearing before the New York Police Court in the spring of 1869, in particular, facilitated a very public debate around the authority of the Bible and the camera in newspaper accounts that were circulated throughout the country. In this chapter, spirit photographs emerge as a hinge between corporeal referents in studio portraiture, on the one hand, and practices of biblical beholding, on the other, that asked beholders to see what was really there.</p>
<p><italic>A Communion of Shadows</italic> begins with the story of Private Wal... more <p><italic>A Communion of Shadows</italic> begins with the story of Private Walter Jones of the 8th New York Calvary, who came to see his Civil War portrait as much more than a photograph: after it saved his life twice, he called it "a Testament." Lindsey argues that Jones's reverence for his portrait was not unique; rather, with the emergence of photography, nineteenth-century American religion developed a new, sacred symbolism rooted in materiality. That is, photographs became more than a physical representation of events as they drew on the memory and values of those who beheld them—thereby transforming the meaning of photography for the study of religion.</p>
When the revolutionary technology of photography erupted in American culture in 1839, it swiftly ... more When the revolutionary technology of photography erupted in American culture in 1839, it swiftly became, in the day’s parlance, a “mania.” This richly illustrated book positions vernacular photography at the center of the study of nineteenth-century American religious life. As an empirical tool, photography captured many of the signal scenes of American life, from the gold rush to the bloody battlefields of the Civil War. But photographs did not simply display neutral records of people, places, and things; rather, commonplace photographs became inscribed with spiritual meaning, disclosing, not merely signifying, a power that lay beyond. Rachel McBride Lindsey demonstrates that what people beheld when they looked at a photograph had as much to do with what lay outside the frame--theological expectations, for example--as with what the camera had recorded. Whether studio portraits tucked into Bibles, postmortem portraits with locks of hair attached, “spirit” photography, stereographs o...
This article seeks to redress certain historiographical oversights in the study of Father Divine&... more This article seeks to redress certain historiographical oversights in the study of Father Divine's Peace Mission movement by turning away from exclusive consideration of Divine's own theological agenda and toward the very tactile devotional culture of his diverse followers. Recent scholarship has rightly pointed out the influences of New Thought on Divine's theologies of materialization and on his reconceptualization of cosmic dramas of personal and corporate salvation, developments that can be seen in the theological sensibilities of his followers as well. Yet, the Peace Mission's “living epistles” also had deep histories, whether personal or familial, in Protestant and Catholic traditions that were not simply discarded when they turned to Father Divine. Lastly, much of the current scholarship on Father Divine and the Peace Mission has been limited to the highly charged Harlem decade of the 1930s. Drawing on the rich material archive of subsequent decades, this arti...
This article examines connections between visual habits of American imperialism, photographic tec... more This article examines connections between visual habits of American imperialism, photographic technology, and biblical imagination in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The author argues that visual habits of optical elision, or the learned technique of not-seeing photographic contemporaries in order to see instead photographic evidence of a biblical past, linked modes of biblical interpretation with forms of American imperialism. She also contends that halftone print technology introduced considerations of the relationship between images and text, providing silhouettes of theological developments at the end of the century that differentiate photography from prior modes of illustration.
In this brief introduction, Rachel McBride Lindsey frames the questions around which the original... more In this brief introduction, Rachel McBride Lindsey frames the questions around which the original conference panel was formed, briefly gestures to the studies of the four authors, and engages some of the insights provided in the formal response.
The photographs of twentieth-century photographer Roy DeCarava are a rich case study for mapping ... more The photographs of twentieth-century photographer Roy DeCarava are a rich case study for mapping the visual theater of race and religion in twentieth-century America. Despite visual similarities in his photographs to contemporary documentary photographers, DeCarava contended that claims to document race in fact worked to invest power in the “madness” of “skin color.” Such a statement echoes the teachings of prophets of black urban religion who incorporated critiques of racial classification into their theological visions. Such visual regimes of race and religion were not limited to persons of African descent. Lewis Hine’s photographs of European immigrants arriving on Ellis Island and Dorothea Lange’s photographs of Japanese American internees were also part of the visual politics of race and religion. By structuring the twentieth century’s ascendant visual regimes around DeCarava, this chapter explores how the technologies, aesthetics, and politics of photography shaped the moral t...
This chapter explores death and mourning pictures within a shifting memorial culture that was roo... more This chapter explores death and mourning pictures within a shifting memorial culture that was rooted in historical modes of representation and theologies of redemption. Over the course of the nineteenth century, photographic portraiture emerged within this memorial culture as both the preferred iconography of mourning in nineteenth-century America and, significantly, as a relic of the departed that disclosed future glory to the bereaved. In this chapter, I explore the role of photographs as relics that illuminated the communion of shadows by mediating the body of the deceased with the grieving body of the bereaved. Here, photographs were devised not as tokens of the moldering body of the deceased but of promise of celestial reunion in glory. As memorial portraiture focused attention on the body of the deceased, another facet within the communion of shadows purported to provide evidence of the soul’s survival after death.
<p>In 1900, Kodak released "The Brownie" camera, which opened picture-taking to a... more <p>In 1900, Kodak released "The Brownie" camera, which opened picture-taking to a wide array of people from various socioeconomic statuses, ethnicities, and regions. Lindsey notes that with this change, photographs shifted from individual acts of beholding to objects that contained narrative cues. The introduction of ambiguity also arose: photographs didn't just authorize identity, but confuse it. Finally, the Brownie changed American religion by extending the communion of shadows into previously uncaptured and more daily religious activities: missionaries could capture and document their experiences abroad; families recorded baptisms and holidays; and individuals captured the saints and ghosts they encountered in their daily lives.</p>
Scholarly discourse evaluating the digital turn in biblical and religious studies is at an early ... more Scholarly discourse evaluating the digital turn in biblical and religious studies is at an early stage in its development, as attested to by the creation of two new book series in 2016: Introduction to Digital Humanities: Religion (IDH, de Gruyter), and Digital Biblical Studies (DBS, Brill). Previously, Heidi Campbell published an overview of the topic (Campbell 2013), developed in further publications (Campbell-Althenhofen 2015, Campbell-Garner 2016). In a recent overview, Carrie Schroeder develops two central questions on the topic: “what does it mean for Biblical Studies to be marginal to the Digital Humanities when DH is a field positioning itself as transformative for the humanities? How can our expertise in Biblical Studies influence and shape Digital Humanities for the better?” (Schroeder 2016). Using her field, Coptic studies, as an example she shows that the particular skills and needs of a marginal field within a marginal field can be a strong driver in DH. Consequently, a...
<p>This chapter explores the communion of shadows through the optical marvel of the stereos... more <p>This chapter explores the communion of shadows through the optical marvel of the stereoscope. First developed in the decades before the invention of photography, stereographs began as simple drawings designed to explore binocular vision by simulating dimensional depth on a flat surface. With the invention of the daguerreotype and subsequent print photography, stereographs became immensely popular forms of nineteenth-century visual culture. The effect of dimension was accomplished by positioning two nearly exact photographs side by side and viewed through prismatic lenses fitted into a hood, a contraption known as a stereoscope. Like halftone tours and biblical photographs, stereographs of the Holy Land invited beholders to dismiss the photographic contemporary in their sights on a biblical imaginary. But through the visual sensation of the stereoscope, beholders imagined themselves transported into the biblical past in a way other photographic technologies had not enabled.</p>
<p>Intense debates around spirit photography started immediately upon its discovery in late... more <p>Intense debates around spirit photography started immediately upon its discovery in late 1862. This chapter frames these debates around the career, trial, and demise of America's first and most notorious spirit photographer, William Howard Mumler. In the context of the American Civil War, Mumler claimed to have discovered a gift for photographing spirits of departed souls and immediately became the subject of public interest and scrutiny. His uneasy affiliation with modern Spiritualism, his public ridicule by the photographic guild, and his brief celebrity in the 1860s provide a window into the at times intense uncertainty around the camera's ability to reveal spiritual truth to modern beholders. His hearing before the New York Police Court in the spring of 1869, in particular, facilitated a very public debate around the authority of the Bible and the camera in newspaper accounts that were circulated throughout the country. In this chapter, spirit photographs emerge as a hinge between corporeal referents in studio portraiture, on the one hand, and practices of biblical beholding, on the other, that asked beholders to see what was really there.</p>
<p><italic>A Communion of Shadows</italic> begins with the story of Private Wal... more <p><italic>A Communion of Shadows</italic> begins with the story of Private Walter Jones of the 8th New York Calvary, who came to see his Civil War portrait as much more than a photograph: after it saved his life twice, he called it "a Testament." Lindsey argues that Jones's reverence for his portrait was not unique; rather, with the emergence of photography, nineteenth-century American religion developed a new, sacred symbolism rooted in materiality. That is, photographs became more than a physical representation of events as they drew on the memory and values of those who beheld them—thereby transforming the meaning of photography for the study of religion.</p>
When the revolutionary technology of photography erupted in American culture in 1839, it swiftly ... more When the revolutionary technology of photography erupted in American culture in 1839, it swiftly became, in the day’s parlance, a “mania.” This richly illustrated book positions vernacular photography at the center of the study of nineteenth-century American religious life. As an empirical tool, photography captured many of the signal scenes of American life, from the gold rush to the bloody battlefields of the Civil War. But photographs did not simply display neutral records of people, places, and things; rather, commonplace photographs became inscribed with spiritual meaning, disclosing, not merely signifying, a power that lay beyond. Rachel McBride Lindsey demonstrates that what people beheld when they looked at a photograph had as much to do with what lay outside the frame--theological expectations, for example--as with what the camera had recorded. Whether studio portraits tucked into Bibles, postmortem portraits with locks of hair attached, “spirit” photography, stereographs o...
This article seeks to redress certain historiographical oversights in the study of Father Divine&... more This article seeks to redress certain historiographical oversights in the study of Father Divine's Peace Mission movement by turning away from exclusive consideration of Divine's own theological agenda and toward the very tactile devotional culture of his diverse followers. Recent scholarship has rightly pointed out the influences of New Thought on Divine's theologies of materialization and on his reconceptualization of cosmic dramas of personal and corporate salvation, developments that can be seen in the theological sensibilities of his followers as well. Yet, the Peace Mission's “living epistles” also had deep histories, whether personal or familial, in Protestant and Catholic traditions that were not simply discarded when they turned to Father Divine. Lastly, much of the current scholarship on Father Divine and the Peace Mission has been limited to the highly charged Harlem decade of the 1930s. Drawing on the rich material archive of subsequent decades, this arti...
This article examines connections between visual habits of American imperialism, photographic tec... more This article examines connections between visual habits of American imperialism, photographic technology, and biblical imagination in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The author argues that visual habits of optical elision, or the learned technique of not-seeing photographic contemporaries in order to see instead photographic evidence of a biblical past, linked modes of biblical interpretation with forms of American imperialism. She also contends that halftone print technology introduced considerations of the relationship between images and text, providing silhouettes of theological developments at the end of the century that differentiate photography from prior modes of illustration.
In this brief introduction, Rachel McBride Lindsey frames the questions around which the original... more In this brief introduction, Rachel McBride Lindsey frames the questions around which the original conference panel was formed, briefly gestures to the studies of the four authors, and engages some of the insights provided in the formal response.
The photographs of twentieth-century photographer Roy DeCarava are a rich case study for mapping ... more The photographs of twentieth-century photographer Roy DeCarava are a rich case study for mapping the visual theater of race and religion in twentieth-century America. Despite visual similarities in his photographs to contemporary documentary photographers, DeCarava contended that claims to document race in fact worked to invest power in the “madness” of “skin color.” Such a statement echoes the teachings of prophets of black urban religion who incorporated critiques of racial classification into their theological visions. Such visual regimes of race and religion were not limited to persons of African descent. Lewis Hine’s photographs of European immigrants arriving on Ellis Island and Dorothea Lange’s photographs of Japanese American internees were also part of the visual politics of race and religion. By structuring the twentieth century’s ascendant visual regimes around DeCarava, this chapter explores how the technologies, aesthetics, and politics of photography shaped the moral t...
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