Ithaca College

Please join us for a special presentation by associate professor of religious studies and author S. Brent Plate:

“A History of Religion in 5 1/2 Objects”
Dr. S. Brent Plate
Thursday, April 18
7:00 PM
Friends Hall 209

Humans are needy. We need things: objects, keepsakes, stuff, tokens, knickknacks, bits and pieces, junk and treasure. We carry special objects in our pockets and purses, place them on shelves in our homes and offices, and sometimes we bring them out and look at them, touch them, listen to them, smell them.

They serve as mementos from the past, goals for the future and points of connection to others: friends, heroes, lovers and ancestors, some lost and some yet to be found. Our objects mark time and space, as they symbolize a world beyond our everyday rhythms, leading us into the realm of the sacred. 

This presentation tells the stories of five types of ordinary objects that ordinary bodies have engaged and put to use in sensual, symbolic, sacred ways: stones, crosses, incense, drums and bread. 

S. Brent Plate is visiting associate professor of religious studies at Hamilton College. His recent books include Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World; Blasphemy: Art that Offends. With Jolyon Mitchell he co-edited The Religion and Film Reader. He is co-founder and managing editor of Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art, and Belief.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Christine Haase at haase@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-1378. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.