Anneke Pons- de Wit

Mrs. Anneke Pons- de Wit

orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

8Years (2019-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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1 January 2019 in Material Religion
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
AWAnneke Pons- de Wit
Anneke Pons- de Wit
DHDick Houtman
Dick Houtman
JEJohn Exalto
John Exalto
FLFred van Lieburg
Fred van Lieburg
JRJohan Roeland
Johan Roeland
MWMaarten Wisse
Maarten Wisse
Based on an ethnographic case study of three recently erected church buildings in the Dutch Bible Belt, this article demonstrates how orthodox Reformed congregations in the Netherlands define church buildings—especially the auditoria—and bibles as simultaneously profane and mediating the sacred. These at first glance ambivalent discourses are informed by a particular semiotic ideology, which maintains that material spaces and objects like these are sacralized if, and only if, individual believers can meaningfully relate them to their personal spiritual experiences. This ideology makes a primary attitude of profanization of material forms indispensable, because any preexistent sacredness of matter would precisely rule out these personal spiritual experiences.