“Submission call for Psalms in Stone: Christian Language and Imagery in Government Buildings”

Submission call for Psalms in Stone: Christian Language and Imagery in Government Buildings

Nation-states convulse in our challenging times. Their ongoing relations with Christianity – and Christians – press us to study public memory and morality in the 21st century. These relations materialize when it comes to Christian language and imagery in government buildings, whether it be Psalm 72:8 etched into the Canadian Parliament’s Peace Tower, Psalm 127:1 inscribed in the British Parliament’s Central Lobby, or even a Christmas display erected in front of a government building. By what social, political and material processes do Christian language and imagery come to be in government buildings? What stories are told about Christian language and imagery in government buildings, and who does the telling? What can we learn about memory, morality and materiality from the Christian language and imagery being discussed? And how does all of the above enrich our understanding of how Christian nationhood occurs?

Memory, morality and materiality are concepts that can help us have a lively discussion about Christian and language and imagery and how they contribute to Christian nationhood today. Christian language and imagery in government buildings, regardless of context, often helps to sustain collective memory of real and imagined Christian pasts, but in unpredictable ways. The memories that this language and imagery can help uphold include certain values such as tradition, unity and moral order that butt up against values of diversity, secularism, and a religiously neutral state. Finally, Christian language and imagery is necessarily material since it requires a medium – plastic, wood, stone, glass or another – and a location.

For this installation which will be featured on ‘The Christian Nation Project’ website, I am welcoming proposals across all disciplines and methodologies to submit a written or multi-media piece exploring an instance of Christian language and imagery in government buildings. Case studies are welcome from all areas of the world.

I am hoping to have this installation produced sometime in the final quarter of 2023.

Please reach out to me with interest by March 31, 2023.

If interested, curious or otherwise, please reach out via email at Patrick.Bondy@dal.ca.

Warm regards,
Patrick Bondy