Abstract:
Why is it rewarding to analyse religion from a material angle and which future research
directions emerge? This chapter firstly conceptualizes materiality in dialogue with
incentives offered by new materialism and, secondly, assesses which forms of material
religion have so far received too little attention. Thirdly, inspired by Feuerbach’s gastrophilosophy, I argue that food is an existential material form through which humans
are enveloped into a grounded exchange with the world. Finally, introducing a collection of “hungry” legba-figures in the Übersee-Museum Bremen, Germany, I call attention to feeding spirits as a prime religious practice. Religion should be rethought from
the stomach.