Seeing Things - by Mason Kamana Allred (Paperback)

About the Book

"Blending methods of cultural history, religious studies, and media studies, Mason Allred unearths the ways Mormons employed technologies to translate events, beliefs, anxieties, and hopes into reproducible experiences and the growth of their religious system of meaning. By arraying and analyzing technologies intimately commingled with Mormonism's historical development, the book offers a provocative reevaluation of Mormonism's doctrinal focus on materiality and embodiment. While Mormon uses of television and the internet are recent examples of the tradition's use of technology, Allred also attends to neglected and now forgotten technologies that Mormons used for negotiating the spirit, such as panorama displays and magic lantern shows. Allred offers a 'media archaeology' connecting such 'dead' technologies and practices with the present, arguing that Mormons' communion with God and fellow humans was regularly accomplished through these kinds of mediation"--

Book Synopsis

In this theoretically rich work, Mason Kamana Allred unearths the ways Mormons have employed a wide range of technologies to translate events, beliefs, anxieties, and hopes into reproducible experiences that contribute to the growth of their religious systems of meaning. Drawing on methods from cultural history, media studies, and religious studies, Allred focuses specifically on technologies of vision that have shaped Mormonism as a culture of seeing. These technologies, he argues, were as essential to the making of Mormonism as the humans who received, interpreted, and practiced their faith.

While Mormons' uses of television and the internet are recent examples of the tradition's use of visual technology, Allred excavates older practices and technologies for negotiating the spirit, such as panorama displays and magic lantern shows. Fusing media theory with feminist new materialism, he employs media archaeology to examine Mormons' ways of performing distinctions, beholding as a way to engender radical visions, and standardizing vision to effect assimilation. Allred's analysis reveals Mormonism as always materially mediated and argues that religious history is likewise inherently entangled with media.

Review Quotes

"Seeing Things is an engaging text that sits at the crossroads of several fields. . . . Allred provides readers with a robust addition to both media and religious studies that hints at the academic potential that lies behind cross-disciplinary studies."--Reading Religion

"Allred articulates in this ambitious entry some fascinating connections between Latter-day Saint theology, technology, and identity formation . . . . Deeply conversant in critical theory, the author establishes inventive arguments supported by examples that convincingly show the range of media's power to change culture. Scholars of religion or media will find much to consider."--Publishers Weekly

"Getting a better look at how everyday Mormons navigated the shifting landscape of belief in a disenchanted world is a highlight of this book. . . . Allred teaches his readers about art's entanglement in this arena."--Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"Historians will find much to love in Seeing Things. . . . Mason Allred has produced an impressive demonstration of how religion, culture, and media have intersected in dynamic and revealing ways across the evolution of one of America's most significant societal forces."--Southwestern Historical Quarterly