Föreläsning med prof. Sally Promey (Yale)

The public display of religion has been fundamental to the shape of the American state. Two case studies, Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and the so-called Peace Cross just outside Washington, D.C., show how “material establishment” has situated White Christianity as its default, a technology of nation formation that certifies the legibility of some cultural forms and disqualifies others. While display prevails in national aesthetic practices, it has distinct limitations: it does not know how to behave when sacred spaces require privacy, when “vacant” space is nonetheless already filled, when something “concealed” is not awaiting discovery but already at home.

The lecture is based on prof. Promey's recent book Religion in Plain View: Public Aesthetics of American Display.