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Category: Book Reviews & Exhibitions

We occasionally publish reviews of exhibitions and books by members of the “Religion and Urbanity” group. If you would like to contribute, get in touch!

Book release of Accessing Water by Sara Keller

After the workshop organised in 2021 at the Augustinerkloster in Erfurt, Sara Keller edited a volume entitled Accessing Water in the South Asian City. The book published by Primus and released this August contains an introduction by Sara Keller and 9 chapters in a broad range of disciplines by Julia A.B. Hegewald, Julia Shaw, Jutta Jain-Neubauer, Nicolas Morelle, Padma Sunder Joshi, Prakhar Vidyarthi, Akil Amiraly, Heather O’Leary and Laura Verdelli…

Urbanität ohne Religion? Zwei Ausstellungen in München

In diesem Sommer bietet Bayerns Landeshauptstadt München gleich zwei Ausstellungen zu Stadt und urbanem Leben. Das Münchner Stadtmuseum zeigt mit “What the City. Perspektiven unserer Stadt” eine Ausstellung zu den vielen Städten (bzw. Facetten), in denen sich München als gewachsene Metropole zeigt. Sie reichen von Kunst und Kultur bis hin zu Nachhaltigkeit und der Gestaltung sowie Wahrnehmung durch die MünchnerInnen selbst. Die zweite Ausstellung ist in der Kunsthalle München in der Theatinerstraße. Sie feiert mit der Fotoausstellung “Civilisation: Wie wir heute leben” ihr 40-jähriges Jubiläum. Hier werden in ikonischen Bildern zivilisatorische Errungenschaften und Ambivalenzen in globaler Perspektive, aber zugleich intim pointiert als Fotografien, gezeigt…

Historische Vorstellungen zwischen Fiktion und Geschichtserzählung

Die eigene Arbeit am Manuskript einer globalen Religionsgeschichte unter dem Fokus von „Religion und Urbanität“ wirft nicht nur Fragen nach den Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Vergleichs, dem Umgang mit objektsprachlichen und metasprachlichen Terminologien und der ganz praktischen Frage der Stoffauswahl auf. Sie macht auch die Frage nach dem Übergangsfeld von historischem Erzählen und Fiktion auf…

City of Words

Review by Supriya Chaudhuri. In February last year I was in Hampi, Karnataka, once the sacral core of the city of Vijayanagara, capital of India’s last great Hindu empire. Sitting in the shadow of the Virupaksha temple, I read Salman Rushdie’s fifteenth novel, Victory City, a magical, intricate history of the foundation and destruction of the city of Vijayanagara, or Bisnaga, as it was called by the Portuguese traveller Domingo Paes.

Sufi Sites as Oases of Resonance: Jamal Malik on “Architectural Resonance”

Prof emeritus Jamal Malik commented on the notion of “architectural resonance” in Muslim cultural history, during the book launch of Architektonische Resonanz. Das Mausoleum des indischen Sufi-Meisters Shah Vajihudin Alvi by Sara Keller. Amongst other things, he noted how a Sufi shrine vibrantly interacts with its surrounding, transforming the Sufi convent into a Resonance oasis.

Review of Nina Kreibig, Institutionalisierter Tod: Die Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Berliner Leichenhäuser im 19. Jahrhundert

Die Beschäftigung mit Sterben und Tod hat Konjunktur. Nina Kreibig hat eine wichtige Studie vorgelegt, in der sie die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Leichenhäuser in Berlin grundlegend und quellengesättigt rekonstruiert. Rezension von Carolin Kosuch.

Architecture can induce Resonance – Hartmut Rosa on Sara Keller’s new book

Architecture can induce resonance, but the effect remains unpredictable: here’s what we learned from the discussion between Hartmut Rosa and Sara Keller at the occasion of the Sara Keller’s book launch of Architektonische Resonanz. Das Mausoleum des indischen Sufi-Meisters Shah Vajihudin Alvi published with Schnell & Steiner…

Urban Monasticism Then and Now

Harry O. Maier discusses Mateusz Fafinski and Jakob Riemenscheider’s book, Monasticism and the City in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The book provides readers with a comprehensive exploration of ancient monastic and urban sites and their inhabitants, akin to a Lonely Planet travel guide. The authors examine monasticism from five aspects: as a genre, within and as cities, with respect to monks and nuns in urban settings, in terms of monastic learning, and as a phenomenon in Afroeurasia.

Middle Ages today – A look into the newly reopened Musée de Cluny

Our new postdoctoral fellow Mateusz Fafinski takes a look at the newly renovated Musée de Cluny. Its a success in many ways: The objects have gained a chronological context while still being roughly grouped by their medium. Through the clever use of the architectural fabric the museum itself is a critical commentary on what is ‘medieval’ and what are the Middle Ages.

Exhibition review “Pompeii and Herculaneum – Living and dying under the volcano”, smac Chemnitz

The exhibition “Pompeii and Herculaneum – Living and dying under the volcano” at the smac State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz, running from 11 November 2022to 12 March 2023, shows the everyday life of rich local inhabitants in the antique Roman cities Pompeii and Herculaneum. The exhibition shows what their lives were like before the tragic catastrophe, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. At Pompeii and Herculaneum, urban life was preserved under the ashes. As a result, we can still see how the inhabitants lived and which urban structures shaped their daily life.

Urban Religion in the Metropolis Tokyo and in Kyoto

Religious practices, religious spaces, and religious times are part of urban diversity in today’s towns and cities. A 40-page picture book, grown out of a cooperation with Japanese universities in the framework of research on “Religion and Urbanity”, documents some impressions of that from visits to Tokyo and Kyoto…