Mikael Aktor - Exploring Aniconism

This book explores the phenomenon of aniconismthe denotation of the presence of gods, saints, or spiritual forces using non-figural visual markers that do not resemble these supranatural entities.

The contributors show how various types of aniconism differ in how they mediate divinepresence and relate to other modes of representation. Aniconism is rarely absolute; eachaniconic form needs to be considered within a spectrum of visual modes ranging from theabstract to the anthropomorphic. The chapters examine aniconism in paleolithic cultures;in ancient Egypt, Israel, and Greece; in early Christianity and Islam; in medieval and contemporaryHinduism; and in 17th19th-century Scottish-Gaelic contexts. The volume alsoprovides a critical historiography of aniconism as an academic concept, a new fine-tunedterminology, and some general characteristics of aniconic expressions in the context of thebroader field of material religion.

Offering a multi-faceted discussion of this important category of religious material culture, this book will be of interest to those with an interest in aniconism, as well as those involved in the wider study of how religion intersects with art and anthropology.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the Religion journal.

Mikael Aktor is an Associate Professor in Studies of Religions at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. His publications include Object of Worship in South Asian Religions (with Knuth Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold, 2015). His other research area is the study of ancient and medieval Hindu law.

Milette Gaifman is an Associate Professor in Classics and History of Arts at Yale University, New Haven, USA. Her publications include Aniconism in Greek Antiquity (2012), The Art of Libation in Classical Athens (2018), and The Embodied Object in Classical Art, a special issue of Art History (co-edited with Verity Platt and Michael Squire, 2018).

Edited by
Mikael Aktor and Milette Gaifman

First published 2020
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ISBN13: 978-0-367-35776-4

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Publishers Note
The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters, namely the inclusion of journal terminology.

Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.

Milette Gaifman

Robert G. Bednarik

Jrgen Podemann Srensen

Hans J. L. Jensen

Robin M. Jensen

Nadia Ali

Jay Johnston

Richard H. Davis

David L. Haberman

Mikael Aktor

The chapters in this book were originally published in Religion, volume 47, issue 3 (July 2017). When citing this material, please use the original page numbering for each article, as follows: