Building the Sacred from Scratch
By Nkazi Nchinda
Our lives are filled with objects and actions we consider sacred. We might keep copies of a book of scripture, attend religious services, or pray before an important event. However, an important question for researchers today is how people, actions, and objects become “sacred” in the first place.
The process of how a person becomes sacred or “sanctified” can be summarized using one of two interpretations: bottom-up or top-down.1 Within the Christian faith, these two interpretations have often competed with one another. Some theologists propose that individuals are sanctified through lifelong, upward spiritual growth. By gradually purifying their relationships, jobs, and other spheres of life, individuals can reach “ultimate sanctification” and become morally virtuous. However, other theologists suggest that individuals are “born-again”—often through baptism—and morally regenerated, leading to changes that trickle down to every other aspect of their lives.1 While these bottom-up and top-down interpretations work in opposite directions, they demonstrate that many theologists have converged in their ideas about how individuals can become sacred.
Less well understood is how objects and actions can become sacred. This process is called “sacralization,” and it describes how individuals attach value to ideas and practices, recognizing them within their existing traditions [2]. Unlike sanctification, which deals with individuals, there are several competing theories about how sacralization creates sacred objects from the mundane. Through her three-year-long ethnographic study, “Sacralisation-the Role of Individual Actors in Legitimising Religion,” Francesca Montemaggi believes she may have new insight into this debate.
Her research, based at a Christian evangelical church in the United Kingdom, aims to understand how individuals construct their religious identities and how these personal religious identities contribute to a larger social identity. The church was dubbed “Bethlehem” as a pseudonym. Using participant observation and several interview styles, Montemaggi determined that individuals have a prominent role in how religion is constructed and legitimized. For an action or idea to become sacralized, it is not enough for individuals to consider an action to be ethical. Rather, they must also integrate the action into the underlying faith tradition. She expounds on this discovery using environmentalism and service as examples of failed and successful attempts at sacralization.
Montemaggi analyzes a Bible study group’s reaction to a video about environmentalism to demonstrate that sacralization can fail, even when individuals consider an action to be ethical. The video featured a Christian environmentalist, and in the ensuing discussion, most group members agreed that environmentalism was important. However, they could not help but note that “it would have been helpful if [the video] had quoted scripture.” In other words, though the group members considered environmentalism to be ethical, they had difficulty sacralizing it, since the video was not sufficiently grounded in their faith tradition. Montemaggi emphasizes this distinction, arguing that for an action or idea to be truly sacralized, individuals must consider it to be both ethical and thoroughly grounded in faith.
Members of the group tried to meet this second criterion is a variety of ways. One person located Bible verses with a similar message, and another individual discussed the theological term “stewardship,” stressing that individuals had a duty to take care of the Earth [2]. However, after continued discussion, the Bible study members agreed that environmentally-friendly actions were valuable but failed to endorse eco-consciousness as an integral part of Christian life. In Montemaggi’s view, this failure to sacralize environmentalism demonstrates the importance of connecting a new concept to the existing faith tradition.
Unlike the example of eco-consciousness, the church’s view of service is a successful example of how activities can become sacralized. Bethlehem church emphasized the duty of individuals to serve and the ethics of service, meeting one of the criteria for sacralization. However, for service to become fully sacralized, it needed to be connected to the larger faith tradition. Montemaggi suggests that some church members connected service to Christianity by stressing the conflict between outside culture and Christian narratives. For example, the manager of the church’s café highlighted the perceived difference between his role and a typical manager: “If I walk into the kitchen and the kitchen staff are busy, I roll my sleeves up and work the dishwasher.” In a typical business, he suggested that he “would have people under [him] who would do the rolling their sleeves up.” [2] In addition to considering service to be an ethical action, the manager also portrayed service as a distinctively Christian action, connecting it back to the underlying faith. Thus, service met both of the key criteria and was successfully sacralized.
Though Montemaggi focuses on religious sacralization, her understanding of this process translates to other fields. The historian Emilio Gentile suggests that phenomena such as politics and nations can be viewed as religions—sacralized entities with their own myths, rituals, symbols, and dedicated followers [3]. Michael Jindra extends the idea of religion even further, suggesting that the Star Trek fandom is a religious phenomenon with sacralized elements of culture, distinctive communities, a developed canon, and official authorities [4]. Understanding how mundane objects and actions become sacred can help us to appreciate phenomena such as politics, nationalism, and popular culture.
Montemaggi’s work reveals that people can sacralize common objects or actions by considering them ethical and legitimizing them within their faith tradition. This research suggests that for an object or action to become sacred, individuals are responsible for connecting it to the existing faith tradition and community of believers. Individuals are not just idle participants in religion. We help create it.
References
[1] Emmons, Robert A., and Cheryl A. Crumpler. “Religion and Spirituality? The Roles of Sanctification and the Concept of God.” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, vol. 9, no. 1, 1999, pp. 17–24., doi:10.1207/s15327582ijpr0901_3.
[2] Montemaggi, Francesca Eva Sara. “Sacralisation – the Role of Individual Actors in Legitimising Religion.” Culture and Religion, vol. 16, no. 3, 2015, pp. 291–307., doi:10.1080/14755610.2015.1083455.
[3] Gentile, Emilio (2006). Politics as Religion. Princeton University Press. Retrieved from https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8195.html.
[4] Jindra, Michael. “It’s About Faith In Our Future.” Religion and Popular Culture in America, Third Edition, 2017, doi:10.1525/california/9780520291447.003.0012.
Our lives are filled with objects and actions we consider sacred. We might keep copies of a book of scripture, attend religious services, or pray before an important event. However, an important question for researchers today is how people, actions, and objects become “sacred” in the first place.
The process of how a person becomes sacred or “sanctified” can be summarized using one of two interpretations: bottom-up or top-down.1 Within the Christian faith, these two interpretations have often competed with one another. Some theologists propose that individuals are sanctified through lifelong, upward spiritual growth. By gradually purifying their relationships, jobs, and other spheres of life, individuals can reach “ultimate sanctification” and become morally virtuous. However, other theologists suggest that individuals are “born-again”—often through baptism—and morally regenerated, leading to changes that trickle down to every other aspect of their lives.1 While these bottom-up and top-down interpretations work in opposite directions, they demonstrate that many theologists have converged in their ideas about how individuals can become sacred.
Less well understood is how objects and actions can become sacred. This process is called “sacralization,” and it describes how individuals attach value to ideas and practices, recognizing them within their existing traditions [2]. Unlike sanctification, which deals with individuals, there are several competing theories about how sacralization creates sacred objects from the mundane. Through her three-year-long ethnographic study, “Sacralisation-the Role of Individual Actors in Legitimising Religion,” Francesca Montemaggi believes she may have new insight into this debate.
Her research, based at a Christian evangelical church in the United Kingdom, aims to understand how individuals construct their religious identities and how these personal religious identities contribute to a larger social identity. The church was dubbed “Bethlehem” as a pseudonym. Using participant observation and several interview styles, Montemaggi determined that individuals have a prominent role in how religion is constructed and legitimized. For an action or idea to become sacralized, it is not enough for individuals to consider an action to be ethical. Rather, they must also integrate the action into the underlying faith tradition. She expounds on this discovery using environmentalism and service as examples of failed and successful attempts at sacralization.
Montemaggi analyzes a Bible study group’s reaction to a video about environmentalism to demonstrate that sacralization can fail, even when individuals consider an action to be ethical. The video featured a Christian environmentalist, and in the ensuing discussion, most group members agreed that environmentalism was important. However, they could not help but note that “it would have been helpful if [the video] had quoted scripture.” In other words, though the group members considered environmentalism to be ethical, they had difficulty sacralizing it, since the video was not sufficiently grounded in their faith tradition. Montemaggi emphasizes this distinction, arguing that for an action or idea to be truly sacralized, individuals must consider it to be both ethical and thoroughly grounded in faith.
Members of the group tried to meet this second criterion is a variety of ways. One person located Bible verses with a similar message, and another individual discussed the theological term “stewardship,” stressing that individuals had a duty to take care of the Earth [2]. However, after continued discussion, the Bible study members agreed that environmentally-friendly actions were valuable but failed to endorse eco-consciousness as an integral part of Christian life. In Montemaggi’s view, this failure to sacralize environmentalism demonstrates the importance of connecting a new concept to the existing faith tradition.
Unlike the example of eco-consciousness, the church’s view of service is a successful example of how activities can become sacralized. Bethlehem church emphasized the duty of individuals to serve and the ethics of service, meeting one of the criteria for sacralization. However, for service to become fully sacralized, it needed to be connected to the larger faith tradition. Montemaggi suggests that some church members connected service to Christianity by stressing the conflict between outside culture and Christian narratives. For example, the manager of the church’s café highlighted the perceived difference between his role and a typical manager: “If I walk into the kitchen and the kitchen staff are busy, I roll my sleeves up and work the dishwasher.” In a typical business, he suggested that he “would have people under [him] who would do the rolling their sleeves up.” [2] In addition to considering service to be an ethical action, the manager also portrayed service as a distinctively Christian action, connecting it back to the underlying faith. Thus, service met both of the key criteria and was successfully sacralized.
Though Montemaggi focuses on religious sacralization, her understanding of this process translates to other fields. The historian Emilio Gentile suggests that phenomena such as politics and nations can be viewed as religions—sacralized entities with their own myths, rituals, symbols, and dedicated followers [3]. Michael Jindra extends the idea of religion even further, suggesting that the Star Trek fandom is a religious phenomenon with sacralized elements of culture, distinctive communities, a developed canon, and official authorities [4]. Understanding how mundane objects and actions become sacred can help us to appreciate phenomena such as politics, nationalism, and popular culture.
Montemaggi’s work reveals that people can sacralize common objects or actions by considering them ethical and legitimizing them within their faith tradition. This research suggests that for an object or action to become sacred, individuals are responsible for connecting it to the existing faith tradition and community of believers. Individuals are not just idle participants in religion. We help create it.
References
[1] Emmons, Robert A., and Cheryl A. Crumpler. “Religion and Spirituality? The Roles of Sanctification and the Concept of God.” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, vol. 9, no. 1, 1999, pp. 17–24., doi:10.1207/s15327582ijpr0901_3.
[2] Montemaggi, Francesca Eva Sara. “Sacralisation – the Role of Individual Actors in Legitimising Religion.” Culture and Religion, vol. 16, no. 3, 2015, pp. 291–307., doi:10.1080/14755610.2015.1083455.
[3] Gentile, Emilio (2006). Politics as Religion. Princeton University Press. Retrieved from https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8195.html.
[4] Jindra, Michael. “It’s About Faith In Our Future.” Religion and Popular Culture in America, Third Edition, 2017, doi:10.1525/california/9780520291447.003.0012.
Figure 1: Politics can be viewed as an organized religion with a leader and dedicated followers. https://popularresistance.org/mandela-violence-vs-nonviolence/
