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 chaired the Department of Religious Studies from 2013 to 2019. Morgan received the 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, fine art, and art theory. Images at Work: The Material Culture of Enchantment , was published in 2018 by 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: The Sacred Gaze (California, 2005), Protestants and Pictures (Oxford, 1999), and Visual Piety (University of California Press, 1998). Morgan is co-founder and co-editor of the international scholarly journal, Material Religion , and co-editor of a book series entitled "Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion," published by Bloomsbury, London. He 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 the Material Study of Religions."

Current Research Interests

An interest in the material culture of enchantment led Morgan to explore the role that images play in practices of enchantment in everyday life, and culminated in Images at Work , which was published by Oxford University Press in 2018.

The Thing about Religion: An Introduction to the Material Study of Religion, will be published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2021.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Contact Information

  • Box 90964, Durham, NC 27708-0964
  • Department of Religious Studies, Durham, NC 27708

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.