croix de chemin - wayside crosses
How do people relate to devotional objects?
What does it tell us about secularism and public religion in Quebec?
There are hundreds of fifteen-foot crosses along rural roads across Quebec. They can be made of wood or metal and are often elaborately decorated. In the 1970s, scholars did a major inventory of the crosses and predicted their imminent demise.
But a generation has passed and they are still standing, cared for by the people who live nearby. My research asks why they are maintained.
I wrote a short piece about the crosses for Reverberations, early on in my research. I've also contributed chapters on the crosses for edited volumes, some of which are listed here. Among other topics, I explore the link between nationalism and heritage-making in Quebec.
My article in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion took the crosses as a starting point to discuss "ambient" secularism and new materialist approaches to human relationships with things and God. You can access it here.
This project gave rise to a volume I edited in 2017. Everyday Sacred is the first English-language volume with broad coverage of contemporary religion in Quebec. My own chapter reflects on gardening and gathering, while retelling the recent history of Quebecois religion with a rural timescale in mind.
What does it tell us about secularism and public religion in Quebec?
There are hundreds of fifteen-foot crosses along rural roads across Quebec. They can be made of wood or metal and are often elaborately decorated. In the 1970s, scholars did a major inventory of the crosses and predicted their imminent demise.
But a generation has passed and they are still standing, cared for by the people who live nearby. My research asks why they are maintained.
I wrote a short piece about the crosses for Reverberations, early on in my research. I've also contributed chapters on the crosses for edited volumes, some of which are listed here. Among other topics, I explore the link between nationalism and heritage-making in Quebec.
My article in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion took the crosses as a starting point to discuss "ambient" secularism and new materialist approaches to human relationships with things and God. You can access it here.
This project gave rise to a volume I edited in 2017. Everyday Sacred is the first English-language volume with broad coverage of contemporary religion in Quebec. My own chapter reflects on gardening and gathering, while retelling the recent history of Quebecois religion with a rural timescale in mind.
With Ludger Lavoie near Cap Santé