https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183518782718 Journal of Material Culture 1–20 © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1359183518782718 journals.sagepub.com/home/mcu Journal of MATERIAL CULTURE Flower, soil, water, stone: Biblical landscape items and Protestant materiality James S Bielo Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA Abstract Protestants mobilize objects such as ‘Holy Land’ flowers, Jordan River stones, vials of Dead Sea water, sand from Lake Tiberias, and Golgotha soil as potent metonymic resources, promising a kind of direct access to the scriptural past and its sacred stories. This article uses this case of biblical landscape items to reflect on the historic ambivalence that characterizes Protestant relations with religious materiality. Building on scholarship that has demonstrated the prolific role of religious materiality in Protestant ritual and everyday lifeworlds, the author extends this analysis by asking: under what conditions do Protestants experience materiality as untroubled and under what conditions is a more anxious disposition activated? To differentiate among conditions, the author proposes that it is helpful to conceptualize Protestant engagements with materiality vis-à-vis legitimized frames (e.g. pedagogy, devotion, evangelism, entertainment). Drawing together archival and ethnographic data, primarily among US Protestants, the article argues that when Protestants function within legitimized frames they are prone to embrace biblical landscape items, but when they find themselves out of frame, their engagement with this particular species of materiality becomes troubled. Keywords anthropology, Christianity, landscape, scripture Introduction In March 2017, I visited Amherst College in Massachusetts at the invitation of a col- league. We had been discussing the phenomenon of biblical gardens (Bielo, 2018), and he wisely suggested a visit to the library archives might yield some relevant materials. Two archivists, one older and one younger, listened politely as I explained my interest in biblical botanicals. The older archivist recalled a 19th-century book with Garden of Eden Corresponding author: James S Bielo, Department of Anthropology, Miami University, 120 Upham Hall, Oxford, OH 45056, USA. Email: bielojs@miamioh.edu 782718MCU 0 0 10.1177/1359183518782718Journal of Material CultureBielo research-article 2018 Article