Abstract
A new form of visual representation of divine others is emerging: photography. I examine here a set of photos of deities related to an apparition claim. The goal I pursue is to analyze the self-constitutive features of these pictures – how they produce what they claim to be. I argue that the “presence' of the deities in the photos is achieved through “incarnation practices.' But these pictures are not just a factual representation of alleged mystical events. They constitute an update and a variation on the “Grand Christian Narrative' wherein the factual poses the moral problem of belief. In that sense, divine photography does not modify the epistemology of religious belief.
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Berryman, E. Taking Pictures of Jesus: Producing the Material Presence of a Divine Other. Hum Stud 28, 431–452 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-005-9000-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-005-9000-7