19 March, 13.15-16.30

Janskerkhof 13, 006

Sally Promey (American Studies and Religious Studies, Yale University)

What Kaʻahumanu Taught Me: Kawaiahaʻo Church, Material Establishment, and the Limits of American Display

The public display of religion has been fundamental to the shape of the American state. Two case studies, Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and the so-called Peace Cross just outside Washington, D.C., show how “material establishment” has situated White Christianity as its default, a technology of nation formation that certifies the legibility of some cultural forms and disqualifies others. While display prevails in national aesthetic practices, it has distinct limitations: it does not know how to behave when sacred spaces require privacy, when “vacant” space is nonetheless already filled, when something “concealed” is not awaiting discovery but already at home.

Rodrigo Toniol (Department of Anthropology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)

Sacred Landscapes: How Religion is Rewriting Brazil’s Public Space

This talk examines how religion, power, and national aesthetics intertwine in Brazilian public space, where Christianity—especially Catholicism and, more recently, Evangelicalism—shapes visibility and what is recognized as legitimate religion and culture. It focuses on three cases: the Christ the Redeemer statue, Bible squares in urban spaces, and the planned Terra Prometida theme park in Rio de Janeiro. These cases reveal how religious transformations reshape urban landscapes as Evangelical aesthetics increasingly contest Catholic dominance, blur the boundaries between sacred and civic space, and challenge Brazil’s secularism.