Exploring religious identity through the arts: A call to theologians

Abstract

Starting with an art exhibition which explored issues of religious identity, and with an illuminative case study of a ‘British Muslim' artist, this paper sets out a two-fold impact of approaching religious subjects from the angle of aesthetics. Firstly, the arts can be employed to open out categories of religious identity as non-fixed and permeable, which in turn shapes resulting inter-faith dialogue. Secondly, this can bring the theologian a clearer sense of how the discipline shapes its theory in the light of such cross-disciplinary engagement, informing a new awareness of the relationship between the researcher and research subject that fruitfully complicates the researcher’s conceptualisation of religious identity. For a theologian working in the area of religious studies, understanding can be enriched by holding an awareness of the subject as subject: the way that it is shaped by one’s methodological grasp. The arts have a special role to play for theologians and others engaged in academic inquiry, reminding how identity is continually in formation, and continually requires fresh expression.