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This book convenes leading scholars to explore the roles of attire and adornment in the creation and communication of religious meaning, identity, and community. Contributors investigate aspects of religious dress in North America in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.
List of contents
Introduction: Religion, Attire, and Adornment in North America, by Benjamin E. Zeller and Marie W. Dallam
Part I. Theological Adornment
1. Seventh-day Adventist Dress: “An Index to the Heart,” by Emily J. Bailey
2. Clothing Spiritual Reality: The Sartorial Styles of Mary Baker Eddy, byJeremy Rapport
3. Faith, Fashion, and Film in the Jazz Age: Catholic Vestments Encounter the Roaring 1920s, Adrienne Nock Ambrose
4. Power Before Thrones of God and Man: Women, Adornment, and Public Life in White American Pentecostalism, by Andrea Shan Johnson and Leah Payne
Part II. Identity Adornment
5. Holy Dashikis! Black Sartorial Nationalism and Black Israelite Religion, by André E. Brooks-Key
6. Refined Bodies: Clothing as a Visual Signifier of Piety for Mormon Women in America, by Kate Davis
7. The Christian Tattoo: Much More than Skin-Deep, by Jerome R. Koch and Kevin D. Dougherty
8. “Queens of the Earth”: The MGT Uniform as a Form of Identity Creation and Nation Building, by Kayla Renée Wheeler
Part III. Negotiated Adornment
9. “Ye Shall Be Naked in Your Rites”: Ritual Attire and Ritual Nudity (Skyclad) in North American Wicca, by Michelle Mueller
10. Amish Vogue: Performing Fashion in the Plain World, by Nao Nomura
11. “Your Religion Is Showing”: Negotiation and Personal Experience in Mormon Garments, by Jessica Finnigan and Nancy Ross
Part IV. Activist Adornment
12. Dressed for Glory: White Uniforms in African American Church Traditions as Visual Political Theology, by Elaina Smith
13. “The Hare Krishna Look”: ISKCON Adornment as Religious Activism, by Benjamin E. Zeller
14. Religious Dress, the Church of Body Modification, and the First Amendment, by Marie W. Dallam
Discussion Questions
Suggested Reading List
List of Contributors
Index
About the author
Marie W. Dallam is professor of religious studies at the Honors College of the University of Oklahoma. Her books include Cowboy Christians (2018).
Benjamin E. Zeller is professor and chair of religion at Lake Forest College. His books include Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion (2014).
Dallam and Zeller are among the coeditors of Religion, Food, and Eating in North America (Columbia, 2014).
Summary
Clothing, dress, and ornamentation are crucial parts of individual and communal religious life and practice, yet they are too often overlooked. This book convenes leading scholars to explore the roles of attire and adornment in the creation and communication of religious meaning, identity, and community. Contributors investigate aspects of religious dress in North America in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, considering adornment practices in a wide range of religious traditions and among individuals who straddle religious boundaries. The collection is organized around four frameworks for understanding the material culture of religion: theological interpretation, identity formation, negotiation of tradition, and activism.
Religion, Attire, and Adornment in North America features essays on topics such as Black Israelites’ use of African fabrics, Christian religious tattoos, Wiccan ritual nudity, Amish “plain dress,” Mormon sacred garments, Hare Krishna robes, and the Church of Body Modification. Spanning the diversity of religious practice and expression, this book is suitable for a range of undergraduate courses and offers new insights for scholars in many disciplines.
