Iconic Religion in Urban Space

Abstract

In order to understand current dynamics of religious diversity, a focus on the tangible presence of religion and the co-existence of new and longstanding religious buildings, sites and artifacts in urban spaces is a fruitful starting point. Launching the notion of iconic religion, this introduction seeks to contribute to developing a scholarly framework for the nexus of religion and the city from a spatial, material, aesthetic and semiotic angle. Situated in the interface between matter and religious meaning, religious icons are not simply carriers of meaning, but make it present.     

The Berlin Site of Luisenstadt and the Figure of St Michael. A Case Study on Iconic Space

ABSTRACT

The article focuses on the figure of St. Michael on top of the front façade of St. Michael’s Church, which is situated in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, formerly called Luisenstadt. Following a relational approach, according to which single elements only get an explicit and distinct meaning in connection to other elements, the contribution first. describes the site in which the figure of St. Michael is embedded and reconstructs its spatial iconicity. Second, it analyzes the statue as a polysemic and thus contested icon and shows how political, artistic, touristic, and religious meanings interact with each other in and through the figure.