About Visually Sacred: Conversations on the Power of Images
Christian contemplative and essayist Arthur Aghajanian explores how images influence our understanding of reality and the sacred through conversations with thought leaders on art, visual culture, and religion. Each episode delves into a different area of visual theology, opening to spiritual wisdom while deconstructing an image-saturated world. Learn more at imageandfaith.com
James Bielo: The Circulation of Religious Artifacts
James is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of five books, most recently "Materializing the Bible: Scripture, Sensation, Place." His current research focuses on the secondhand circulation of Christian material culture.
I spoke with James about his path into studying material religion and why materiality is essential for understanding religious practice. We discussed the Bible as a powerful object, how creativity functions in the context of literal interpretations of Scripture, and the ways religious artifacts circulate, gaining new meanings and values. James shared insights on the remixing of objects, the journey of the Gauchi brothers’ Holy Land model, and the ethics of collecting and selling Christian items. We also talked about how we can be surprised by material culture, the role of intentionality, and how secondhand spaces reveal both the endurance and transformation of Christianity in everyday life, especially in relation to popular culture.
7 Jul 2026
Ryan K. Smith: Heritage and Holiness
Ryan is a Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University. He specializes in American religious history, material culture, and historic preservation. His most recent book is Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond's Historic Cemeteries. He is also the author of "Gothic Arches, Latin Crosses: Anti-Catholicism and American Church Designs in the Nineteenth Century." Ryan is a founding member of the Richmond Cemetery Collaboratory and is the director of the Richmond Cemetery Project (richmondcemeteries.org). He has museum experience at the St. John's Church Foundation, the Winterthur Museum, the St. Augustine Historical Society, and the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, among other institutions.
In this conversation, Ryan and I explore a rich array of subjects, from the Shaker aesthetic to the symbolism of lighthouses in Christianity. Ryan also explains the power dynamics involved in historical Christian burial practices, and how material religion and public spaces interact to reveal important societal values and beliefs.
14 Jun 2026
Lieke Wijnia: Galleries of Material Religion
Lieke is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Art and Society at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, the Netherlands, and works as a freelance curator. She is the author of "Resonating Sacralities: Dynamics Between Art and Religion in Postsecular Netherlands" and "Beyond the Return of Religion: Art and the Postsecular." She co-edited with others the volume "Museums as Ritual Sites, Civilizing Rituals Reconsidered" and the (open-access) "Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe." She previously curated the exhibitions "Mary Magdalene" in 2021 and "The Genesis of Science" in 2024 at Museum Catharijneconvent, and edited their accompanying publications.
In this conversation, Lieke and I explore how contemporary art engages spirituality and can function as a form of material religion. We look at the challenges artists face in expressing the sacred within a largely secular culture, how migration shapes religious imagery, and what it means to curate exhibitions that take spiritual themes seriously. We also reflect on how the sacred continues to surface within modern visual culture.
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