Don't Let the Murti Get Dirty: The Uses and Abuses of Religious ‘Artefacts’

This paper takes a critical view of the use of ‘artefacts’ in the teaching of religious education. In particular, it suggests that the plundering of religious faiths and the physical access to sacred objects afforded to pupils have the effects of supplanting the numinous with the external and of demystifying the apparatuses of devotion. To the extent that mystery is in many traditions conveyed and understood by taboos upon touching and seeing, direct access and close inspection in classroom settings are consistent not with learning but with unlearning. The professional etiquette which is expressed in the title of this paper addresses the need to show ‘respect’: we suggest here that respect is a diversion from reverence. The argument rests on at least two contentious assumptions. The first is that religious education must provide not only an acquaintance with the externals of religious faith but also an understanding of the numinous. The contention of this article, then, is that the effect of using ‘artefacts’ is to disturb the balance of attention to the numinous and to its physical accidents. The second assumption is that there is an obligation upon educators in religion as far as possible to ground their study in the accounts and experience of faith adherents: what is important to the faithful should determine what is regarded by those who seek religious education. Religion is the subject of study and learning method the means. A recurrent concern in this paper is that subject matter sometimes gives way to classroom method.