David Morgan | Scholars@Duke

David Morgan
Professor of Religious Studies

David Morgan is Professor of Religious Studies with a secondary appointment in the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke. He also chairs the Department of Religious Studies at Duke. Morgan received his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1990. He has published several books and dozens of essays on the history of religious visual culture, on art history and critical theory, and on religion and media. Images at Work: The Material Culture of Enchantment , will appear in 2018 from Oxford University Press. The Forge of Vision: A Visual History of Modern Christianity , based on the 2012 Cadbury Lectures delivered at the University of Birmingham, UK, appeared in 2015 from the University of California Press. Previous books include The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling (California, 2012), The Lure of Images: A History of Religion and Visual Media in America (Routledge, 2007) and two that he edited and contributed to: Religion and Material Culture: The Matter of Belief (Routledge, 2010) and Key Words in Religion, Media, and Culture (Routledge, 2008). Earlier works: Visual Piety (University of California Press, 1998), Protestants and Pictures (Oxford, 1999), and The Sacred Gaze (California, 2005). Morgan is co-founder and co-editor of the international scholarly journal, Material Religion, and co-editor of a book series at Routledge entitled “Religion, Media, and Culture.” Morgan is currently at work on a new book under contract with the University of North Carolina Press, entitled "The Thing about Religion: An Introduction to Studying the Materiality of Belief."

Current Research Interests

The material culture of enchantment, exploring the role that images play in practices of enchantment in everyday life, culminating in a new book entitled Images at Work , to be published by Oxford University Press in 2018

The Thing about Religion: An Introduction to Studying the Materiality of Belief, under contract with University of North Carolina Press.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor of Religious Studies, Religious Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008
Chair of the Deaprtment of Religious Studies, Religious Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2016
Professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008

Contact Information

Box 90964, Durham, NC 27708-0964
Department Of Religious Studies, Durham, NC 27708
david.morgan@duke.edu (919) 660-3555

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Chicago 1990
- M.A., University of Arizona 1984
- B.A., Concordia College 1980
Duke Appointment History
- Chair in the Department of Religious Studies, Religious Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2013 - 2016
Recognition
In the News
- JUL 24, 2018 Duke Magazine
  
  We Still Believe in Enchantment. David Morgan Explains Why
- JUN 27, 2018 Duke Magazine
  
  David Morgan on the Continuing Allure of Enchantment
- MAY 9, 2018
  
  Fashion Meets Religion in ‘Heavenly Bodies’
- OCT 28, 2015 Catholic Courier, Catholic News Service
  
  Book examines importance, influence and interpretations of Vatican II
- APR 24, 2014 Washington Post, Associated Press
  
  Crusades fought, e-Bay bids sought for relics
Awards & Honors
Expertise
Global Scholarship
- Expertise
  - United States of America (Country)
- Research
  - Europe (Continent)
Research
Selected Grants
- Material Religion: State of the Art awarded by Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. 2015
Fellowships, Supported Research, & Other Grants
- Research & Travel Grant awarded by Stichting Porticus, Amsterdam 2004 - 2005
- NEH Humanities Fellowship awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities 2001 - 2002
- Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art and Humanities awarded by J. Paul Getty 1996 - 1997
- Pew Postdoctoral Fellowship in Religion and American History awarded by Yale University 1994 - 1995
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Morgan, D. Images at work: The material culture of enchantment. January 1, 2018. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. The Forge of Vision: A Visual History of Modern Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015. (Monograph)
  - Van Rompay, L, Miglarese, S, and Morgan, D. The long shadow of vatican II: Living faith and negotiating authority since the second vatican council. January 1, 2015.
  - Morgan, D. The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling. University of California Press, 2012.
  - Religion and Material Culture: The Matter of Belief. Edited by D Morgan. London: Routledge, 2010. (Edited Book)
  - Morgan, D. Key words in religion, media and culture. June 30, 2008. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. Key words in religion, media and culture. June 30, 2008. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. Introduction: Religion, media, culture: The shape of the field. June 30, 2008. Full Text
  - Re-enchantment. Edited by D Morgan and J Elkins. New York: Routledge, 2008. (Edited Book)
  - Morgan, D. The Sacred Heart of Jesus: The Visual Evolution of a Devotion. Amsterdam University Press, 2008.
  - Morgan, D. The Lure of Images: A History of Religion and Visual Media in America. Routledge, 2007.
  - Morgan, D. The sacred gaze: Religious visual culture in theory and practice. May 31, 2005.
  - The Visual Culture of American Religions. Edited by D Morgan and S Promey. Taylor & Francis US, 2001. (Edited Book)
  - Morgan, D, and Promey, SM. Exhibiting the Visual Culture of American Religions. Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso University, 2000. (Exhibition Catalog) Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. Protestants and Pictures: Religion, Visual Culture, and the Age of American Mass Production. 1999.
  - Morgan, D. Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images. 1998.
  - Icons of American Protestantism. Edited by D Morgan. Yale University Press, 1996. (Edited Book)
  - The Long Shadow of Vatican II. Authority, Faith, and Church since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Edited by D Morgan, L Van Rompay, and S Miglarese. (Edited Book)
- Book Reviews
  - Morgan, D. "Saints and Sacred Matter: the Cult of Relics in Byzantium and Beyond." Material Religion 12, no. 4 (October 27, 2016): 524-525. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Commun(icat)ing Bodies: Body as a Medium in Religious Symbol Systems." Journal of Contemporary Religion 31, no. 2 (May 3, 2016): 292-294. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Missionaries and Idols in Polynesia." Material Religion 12, no. 2 (April 2, 2016): 248-248. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Temples for a Modern God: Religious Architecture in Postwar America." HISTORY OF RELIGIONS 54, no. 3 (February 2015): 380-382. Full Text Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "The Sensuous in the Counter-Reformation Church." CHURCH HISTORY 83, no. 4 (December 2014): 1037-1038. Full Text Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "Juliane Schmieglitz-Otten, ed. Die Celler Schlosskapelle: Kunstwelten, Politikwelten, Glaubenswelten . Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2012. 260 pp. €49.90. ISBN: 978–3–7774–7031–3." Renaissance Quarterly 66, no. 4 (December 2013): 1383-1384. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Temples for a modern god: religious architecture in postwar America." Choice Reviews Online 51, no. 01 (September 1, 2013): 51-0093-51-0093. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Approaches to the Visual in Religion." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 23, no. 3 (July 1, 2013): 250-252. Full Text Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "Christ to coke how image becomes icon, Kemp, Martin." Material Religion 9, no. 1 (March 2013): 121-122. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Celeste Brusati, Karl A. E. Enenkel, and Walter S. Melion, eds. The Authority of the Word: Reflecting on Image and Text in Northern Europe, 1400–1700. Emory University, Lovis Corinth Colloquia III . Intersections: Interdisciplinary Studies in Early Modern Culture 20. Leiden: Brill, 2012. xl + 708 pp. $245. ISBN: 978–90–04–21515–3." Renaissance Quarterly 65, no. 3 (September 2012): 896-897. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Sound and Space in Renaissance Venice: Architecture, Music, Acoustics." CHURCH HISTORY 79, no. 4 (December 2010): 922-924. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "Imaginary Friends: Representing Quakers in American Culture, 1650-1950." CHURCH HISTORY 79, no. 2 (June 2010): 483-485. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "God's Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World." JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC 29, no. 3 (2009): 538-543. Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "Religion and the Making of Nat Turner's Virginia: Baptist Community and Conflict, 1740-1840." JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC 29, no. 3 (2009): 538-543. Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "Bodies of Belief: Baptist Community in Early America." JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC 29, no. 3 (2009): 538-543. Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "Our Distance from God: Studies of the Divine and the Mundane in Western Art and Music." The American Historical Review 113, no. 5 (December 2008): 1478-1478. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Seeing Things: Deepening Relations with Visual Artefacts." Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief 4, no. 2 (July 1, 2008): 237-238. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Paolo Apolito, . The Internet and the Madonna: Religious Visionary Experience on the Web . Translated by Antony Shugaar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. x+282 pp. $26.00 (cloth)." The Journal of Religion 86, no. 3 (July 2006): 509-510. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture. By David Chidester. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. xii + 294 pp. $50.00 cloth; $19.95 paper." Church History 74, no. 04 (December 2005): 897-897. Full Text
  - Morgan, D, and Ivey, PE. "Prayers in Stone: Christian Science Architecture in the United States, 1894-1930." The Journal of American History 88, no. 1 (June 2001): 217-217. Full Text
- Book Sections
  - Van Rompay, L, Miglarese, S, and Morgan, D. "Epilogue." In The Long Shadow of Vatican II: Living Faith and Negotiating Authority Since the Second Vatican Council, 128-137. January 1, 2015.
  - Morgan, D. "The Senses in Religion: Migrations of Sacred and Sensory Values." In A Cultural History of the Senses, edited by JP Toner, C Classen, AC Vila, RG Newhauser, and D Howes, 89-111. London: Berg, December 1, 2014. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "The Image of the Protestant Bible in America." In The Bible in the Public Square, edited by MA Chancey, C Meyers, and EM Meyers, 93-120. Society of Biblical Literature, July 21, 2014. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Reflection: Religious tracts in the eighteenth century." In Media, Religion and Culture: An Introduction, 84-85. January 1, 2014.
  - Morgan, D. "Kimsooja and the Art of Place." In Kimsooja: Unfolding, 115-123. Vancouver Art Gallery, 2013.
  - Morgan, D. "Art, Material Culture, and Lived Religion." In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts, edited by FB Brown. Oxford University Press, 2013. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Rhetoric of the Heart: Figuring the Body in Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus." In Things: Material Religion and the Topography of Divine Spaces, 90-111. Fordham University Press, 2012. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "The Look of the Sacred." In Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies, edited by RA Orsi, 296-318. Cambridge University Press, 2012. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Religion and Visuality in America: Material Economies of the Sacred." In Cambridge History of Religions in America, 3 vols, edited by S Stein, 748-780. Cambridge University Press, 2012. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Thomas Kinkade and the History of Protestant Visual Culture in America." In Thomas Kinkade: The Artist in the Mall, 29-53. Duke University Press, 2011. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Finding Fabiola." In Media and Culture: A Reader, edited by G Lynch and J Mitchell, 171-181. Routledge, 2011. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "The Material Culture of Lived Religion: Visuality and Embodiment." In Mind and Matter, edited by J Vakkari, 14-31. Society of Art History, 2010. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Image, Art and Inspiration in Modern Apparitions." In Looking Beyond: Images, Dreams, and Insights in Medieval Art and History, edited by C Hourihane, 265-282. Index of Christian Art, 2010. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Seeing Nationhood: Images of American Identity." In Powers: Religion as a Social and Spiritual Force, edited by MT Borg and JWV Henten, 81-102. Fordham University Press, 2010. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Aura and the Inversion of Marian Pilgrimage: Fatima and Her Statues." In Moved By Mary: Pilgrimage in the Modern World, edited by J Hermkens and Notermans, pp. 49-65. 2009. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "American Holy Land: Tissot in the National Context." In Prodigal Son: James Tissot and the "Life of Christ", edited by J Dolkart, pp. 48-65. Brooklyn Museum, 2009. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Painting as Visual Evidence." In Using Visual Evidence, edited by R Howells and R Matson, pp. 8-23. Open University Press, 2009. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Image." In Key Words in Religion, Media and Culture, 96-110. June 30, 2008. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Images of the Passion and the History of Protestant Visual Piety in America." In The Passion Story: From Visual Representation to Social Drama, edited by M Kupfer, 131-145. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "The Study of Religion and Popular Culture: Prospects, Presuppositions, Procedures." In Between Sacred and Profane: Researching Religion and Popular Culture, edited by G Lynch, 21-33. London: IB Tauris, 2007.
  - Morgan, D. "The Visual Construction of the Sacred." In Images and Communities The Visual Construction of the Social, edited by M Stocchetti and J Sumiala-Seppänen, 53-74. Helsinki: Gaudeamus-Helsinki University Press, 2007. (Chapter)
  - "Absent Fathers and Women with Beards: Religion and Gender in Popular Imagery of the Nineteenth Century." In American Visual Cultures, edited by D Holloway and J Beck, 39-47. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005.
  - Morgan, D. "Manly Pain and Motherly Love: Mel Gibson’s Big Picture." In After The Passion is Gone: American Religious Consequences, edited by JS Landres and M Berenbaum, 149-157. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press/Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Catholic Visual Piety and The Passion of the Christ." In Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson's Film and Its Critics, edited by S Brent, 85-96. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Toward a Modern Historiography of Art and Religion." In Reluctant Partners: Art and Religion in Dialogue, edited by E Heller, 16-47. New York: The Gallery at the American Bible Society, 2004. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Visual Media and the Case of Ethiopian Protestantism." In =Belief in Media: Media and Christianity in a Cultural Perspective, edited by M Hess, P Horsfield, and A Medrano, 91-106. Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2004. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Protestant Visual Piety and the Aesthetics of American Mass Culture." In Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture, edited by J Mitchell and S Marriage, 107-120. London: T&T Clark, 2003. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Protestant Visual Practice and American Mass Culture." In Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media: Explorations in Media, Religion and Culture, edited by S Hoover and L Schofield Clark, 37-62. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "The Image of Religion in American LIFE, 1936-1951." In Looking at LIFE, edited by E Doss, 139-157. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "For Christ and the Republic: Religious Illustration and the History of Literacy in Nineteenth-Century America." In The Visual Culture of American Religions, edited by D Morgan and SM Promey, 49-67. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "The Masculinity of Jesus in Popular Religious Art." In Men’s Bodies, Men’s Gods: Male Identities in a [Post]Christian Culture, edited by B Krondorfer, 251-266. New York University Press, 1996. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Warner Sallman and the Visual Culture of American Protestantism." In Icons of American Protestantism: The Art of Warner Sallman, edited by D Morgan, 25-60. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "’Would Jesus Have Sat for a Portrait?’ The Likeness of Christ in the Popular Reception of Sallman’s Art." In Icons of American Protestantism: The Art of Warner Sallman, edited by D Morgan, 181-206. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. (Chapter)
  - Morgan, D. "Kuvat, sanat ja kääntyminen—painetun sanan kultturi ja uskonnollisten kuvien levittäminen protestanttisen lähestystyön historiassa [Print Culture and the Circulation of Imagery in Protestant Mission History]." In Pyhä media [Pious Media], edited by J Sumiala-Seppänen, 167-176. Atena Kustannus. (Chapter)
- Journal Articles
  - Morgan, D. "Soldier Statues and Empty Pedestals: Public Memory in the Wake of the Confederacy." Material Religion 14, no. 1 (January 2, 2018): 153-157. Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Morgan, D. "How pictures complete us: the beautiful, the sublime, and the divine." Material Religion 14, no. 1 (January 2, 2018): 135-136. Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Morgan, D. "The subject in question." Journal of Material Culture 22, no. 4 (December 2017): 476-484. Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Morgan, D. "Defining the sacred in fine art and devotional imagery." Religion 47, no. 4 (October 2, 2017): 641-662. Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Morgan, D. "Materializing the study of religion." Religion 46, no. 4 (October 2016): 640-643. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "On the nature of collecting." Material Religion 12, no. 3 (July 27, 2016): 375-377. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "The Materiality of Sacred Economies." Material Religion 11, no. 3 (July 3, 2015): 387-391. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Religious Objects in Museums: Private Lives and Public Duties." Journal of Contemporary Religion 29, no. 2 (May 4, 2014): 359-360. Full Text
  - Meyer, B, Morgan, D, Paine, C, and Plate, SB. "Material religion's first decade." Material Religion 10, no. 1 (March 2014): 105-110. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "The Ecology of Images: Seeing and the Study of Religion." Religion and Society 5, no. 1 (January 1, 2014). Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Religion and Media: A Critical Review of Recent Developments." Critical Research on Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 1 (December 2013): 47-56.
  - Morgan, D. "Religion and media: A critical review of recent developments." Critical Research on Religion 1, no. 3 (December 2013): 347-356. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Mediation or mediatisation: The history of media in the study of religion." Culture and Religion 12 (June 2011): 137-152.
  - Meyer, B, Morgan, D, Paine, C, and Plate, SB. "Introduction: key words in material religion." Material Religion 7, no. 1 (March 2011): 4-8. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Thing." Material Religion 7, no. 1 (March 2011): 140-146. Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Morgan, D. "The Emotional Technology of Evangelicalism." American Art 25 (2011): 13-15. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "The look of sympathy: religion, visual culture, and the social life of feeling." Material Religion 5, no. 2 (July 2009): 132-154. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "The materiality of cultural construction." MATERIAL RELIGION 4, no. 2 (July 2008): 228-229. Full Text Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "Exhibition review: The critical view." Material Religion 3, no. 1 (December 1, 2007): 135-143. Full Text
  - CORRIGAN, J, MORGAN, D, SILK, M, and WILLIAMS, RH. "Forum: Electronic Media and the Study of American Religion." Religion and American Culture 16, no. 1 (January 2006): 1-24. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Response to spackman, "reconsidering 'kitsch'"." Material Religion 1, no. 3 (December 1, 2005): 417-419.
  - Morgan, D. "Visual Religion." Religion 30, no. 1 (January 2000): 41-53. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "German character and artistic form: The cultural politics of German art theory, 1773–1814." European Romantic Review 6, no. 2 (January 1996): 183-212. Full Text
- Other Articles
  - Morgan, D. "Violence and Memory." The Revealer (May 12, 2011). (Essay) Link to Item
  - Meyer, B, Morgan, D, Paine, C, and Plate, SB. "The origin and mission of Material Religion." Religion 40, no. 3 (July 2010): 207-211. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Liberty and Liberty Together." (June 10, 2009). (Essay) Link to Item
  - Morgan, D. "The Materiality of Cultural Construction." Material Religion 4, no. 2 (July 2008): 228-229. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Materiality." Encyclopedia of Missions and Missionaries (2007). (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Kimsooja and the Discipline of Looking." Curator: The Museum Journal 49, no. 3 (July 2006): 295-300. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Reformed Theology and Visual Culture: The Protestant Imagination from Calvin to Edwards. By William A. Dyrness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. xv + 342 pp. $85.00 cloth; $29.99 paper." Church History 74, no. 02 (June 2005): 384-384. Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Reviews of Books:From Meetinghouse to Megachurch: A Material and Cultural History Anne C. Loveland, Otis B. Wheeler." The American Historical Review 110, no. 1 (February 2005): 124-124. (Review) Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "The Image of the Image of the Image." Image 42 (June 2004). (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Antigone’s Wall: Magadalena Abakanowicz and the Allure of Images." Image 43 (2004): 25-33. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "The vicissitudes of seeing: Iconoclasm and idolatry." Religion 33, no. 2 (April 2003): 170-180. (Review) Full Text
  - Morgan, D. "Spirit and Medium: The Video Art of Bill Viola." Image 26 (2000). (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Ambiguous Icons: The Art of Ed Paschke." Image 17 (1997): 31-44. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Empathy and the Experience of ‘Otherness’ in Pechstein’s Depictions of Women: The Expressionist Search for Immediacy." The Smart Museum of Art Bulletin 4 (1993): 12-22. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Sallman’s Head of Christ: The History of an Image." The Christian Century 109 (October 7, 1992): 868-870. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "The Allure of Electronic Media and the Study of Religion." Religion and American Culture 16, no. 1: 7-13. (Essay)
  - Morgan, D. "Screen Media and Public Reflection about Religion in the College Classroom." (Essay) Link to Item
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Service to the Profession

Some information on this profile has been compiled automatically from Duke databases and external sources. (Our About page explains how this works.) If you see a problem with the information, please write to Scholars@Duke and let us know. We will reply promptly.

Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

In the News

Awards & Honors

Global Scholarship

Expertise

Research

Selected Grants

Fellowships, Supported Research, & Other Grants

Selected Publications

Books

Book Reviews

Book Sections

Journal Articles

Other Articles

Recent Courses

Presentations & Appearances

Service to the Profession