25 October 2019 | Conference Multimodality: Illusion, Performance, Experience Aarhus, DK

Paper Presentation:

Frank Kessler and Sabine Lenk

Teaching Faith with the Lantern – Multimodal Performances by the Clergy (c. 1900 – c.1920s)

Conference organized by

Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University

The full program can be accessed here.

Abstract:

The Catholic Church has a long “performative” tradition, even if the Church itself may not have seen it as such. When the French and Belgian clergy started to experiment with the optical lantern around 1900, they could understand this new communication tool as a continuation of their centuries-long efforts to propagate faith. This section will analyse the use of the optical lantern as part of the strategies employed by the Catholic clergy to teach catechism, to visually enhance the understanding of the Bible, but also to fight what they saw as the dangers of modern life, from alcoholism to moral and political threats posed by liberal and socialist ideas,or by the efforts to impose a secularist school system. It will examine the multimodal performance practices on the basis of contemporary source materials, in particular the recommendations and instructions that were disseminated by the Catholic Church in bulletins and pamphlets.