Visual Culture and American Religions Kristin Schwain* University of Missouri Abstract Scholarship on the visual culture in American religions has flourished in the past three decades. Scholars from myriad disciplines have generated essays, monographs, and edited volumes that examine everything from fine art paintings to popular prints, church architecture to yard shrines, and folk art to graphic novels. In this essay, I provide an abbreviated explanation for the explosion of scholarship on visual culture and American religions in the 1980s and 1990s to highlight promi- nent approaches to the subject in contemporary scholarship. Then, I outline a few of the major themes that stimulate the scholarly field, including popular religion, consumption, cross-cultural encounters, sacred space, modern and postmodern art, and dress. Finally, I consider challenges faced by contemporary scholars in developing and strengthening this interdisciplinary area of inquiry. Scholarship on visual culture in American religions has flourished in the past three decades. Scholars from American studies, anthropology, art history, film studies, history, folklore, philosophy, religious studies, sociology, and theology have generated essays, edited volumes, monographs, seminars, conferences, exhibitions, catalogues, and websites that examine everything from fine art paintings to popular prints, church architecture to yard shrines, holy cards to video games, and folk art to graphic novels. The myriad subjects, methodologies, and theories that stimulate this intellectual exchange confirm art historian David Morgan’s assertion that there is no universal discourse of ‘art and religion’ that unites its practitioners into a single intellectual community or their dialog into an integrated field of study (Morgan 2004, p. 17). To tell the story of vision’s role in American religious history, then, is a complicated task. It can be recounted through an investigation of the mental images that have ani- mated the religious imagination or the ‘mind’s eye’. It can be narrated, too, through theological writings on the arts and arts criticism; through paintings, sculptures, and installations that engage religious subjects and themes; through devotional objects that facilitate religious practice; through buildings and spaces set aside for sacred use; and through the artifacts, television programs, and films of American mass culture that deco- rate homes and entertain audiences. While all of these threads are critical to understand- ing vision’s role in America’s religious life and can be examined independently, they are also interwoven. Indeed, a study of the visual involves far more than the image or object itself. It requires an investigation of its ‘thingness’ or ‘objecthood,’ or put differently, its subject matter, medium, and style. It demands, too, a consideration of its creator as well as his or her artistic intention and cultural status. Its setting is important as well, since its function and significance change if it is exhibited in a department store, an art museum, a church, or a living room. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, its meaning is contin- gent on the viewer, and more specifically, the ways of seeing and epistemological assumptions he or she brings to the artifact, image, or building. Seeing is not a natural or neutral act; it is a learned practice shaped by the cultures in which people live and work. Religion Compass 4/3 (2010): 190–201, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00200.x ª 2010 The Author Journal Compilation ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd