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Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings

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A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2025) | Viewed by 20086

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Marie-Therese Mäder

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Guest Editor

Fakultät für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80539 Munich, Germany
Interests: religion; media; gender; media ethics

Dr. Anna-Katharina Höpflinger

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Guest Editor

Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80539 Munich, Germany
Interests: religion; gender; clothing; music

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to contribute to this Special Issue titled “Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings”, which focuses on weddings and their diverse representions, performances, and meanings in historical and contemporary perspectives. Weddings are understood as rites de passage (van Gennep, 2019) that are performed in religious traditions and many cultures of the past and in the present. The religious significance of rites of passage is manifested by symbolically transforming the social status of the individuals (the wedding couple), enabling them to transcend the everyday world. Thereby, a general order of existence (family, gender, status) is expressed and reconfigured (Geertz, 1993, 90). The actual wedding rituals are as diverse as each cultural–religious context; they adapt to them, and change over the course of time. At the same time, some traditional elements are also passed on.

The focus of this Special Issue “Promising Images of Love” is the ways in which weddings mediate values that are often highly normative in reference to specific religious traditions. Norms in this context are understood as guidelines to act by, which express specific values and justify normative acts. Values and norms in wedding practices are numerous, complex, and interlinked on several levels, notably social, political, cultural, historical, and economic.

This Special Issue invites authors to scrutinize how wedding practices enclose and reshape different religious norms and values as well as stereotypes with the intent to highlight the performativity of their mediatisation. Mediatisation in the current approach is understood as the interaction between culture, including religion and the media, in a broad sense that comprises all kinds of artefacts of material and visual culture such as images, films, fashion, and architecture. Mediatisation describes the interaction of these two areas and how they adapt to and transform one other.

The following questions are central to the Special Issue’s focus:

How can we approach weddings on a theoretical level as a rite de passage?
Which norms and values form the basis of historical and contemporary wedding practices and representations?
How is gender constructed in wedding practices understood as religious?
Which social, political, cultural, and economic norms and values are expressed in religious wedding representations and practices? How do they change adapt and transform over time?
How do wedding specialists and political–economic factors influence the performative dimensions of the rite de passage?
What does the future of religious weddings look like?

Reference

Geertz, Clifford. Religion as Cultural System, in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. London: Fontana Press, 1993.

van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Second edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Ingraham, Chrys. White Weddings Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Lebe, Reinhard. Ein Königreich als Mitgift: Heiratspolitik in der Geschichte. Bd. 30792. Dtv. München: DtTaschenbuch-Verl, 2000.

Schäffler, Hilde. Ritual als Dienstleistung: die Praxis professioneller Hochzeitsplanung. Berlin: Reimer, 2012.

Williams, Lucy. Global Marriage: Cross-Border Marriage Migration in Global Context. Migration, Minorities & Citizenship. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Witte, John. The Western Case for Monogamy over Polygamy. Cambridge Studies in Law and Christianity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Dr. Marie-Therese Mäder
Dr. Anna-Katharina Höpflinger
Guest Editors

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Keywords

weddings
religions
values
norms
mediatisation
tradition
transformation

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 284 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Introduction of Same-Sex Marriage in Germany—A Question of Conscience and/or Faith? A Case Study

by Sabine Exner-Krikorian

Religions 2024, 15(9), 1142; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091142 - 23 Sep 2024

Viewed by 1502

Abstract

On 30 June 2017, the German Bundestag voted in favor of the introduction of marriage for same-sex couples—a historic moment. Only a few days earlier, the then Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel had released the vote as a decision of conscience and thus dissolved the usual underlying factional compulsion—does this mean that rights for homosexual people are a question of personal conscience and values? Such a localization arouses the interest of religious studies to investigate how the discourse actors from the fields of politics, church and society formulate the decision of conscience as a discursive strategy in the negotiation process of same-sex marriage in Germany argumentatively and which positionings as well as descriptions of others and themselves are derived from this. The starting point is a modernity in which the actors move, understand and articulate themselves. This understanding of modernity is based on the process of a vertical transfer (Gladigow) of sociological theories of religion, among others, whereby narratives of secularization, overcoming religion (as a necessary precondition of modernity) and narratives of an opposition of religious vs. secular or religious vs. homosexual reappear as positions and arguments in the discourse. Using the approach of discursive religious studies (von Stuckrad) in conjunction with sociological discourse analysis (Keller), these processes of positioning, demarcation and negotiation based on the premises of modernity will be analyzed for the period from 2013 to 2017 on the basis of the public debate on religious, political, and social actors in Germany. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

8 pages, 205 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Wedding and Its Medialization from the Perspective of the Ljubljana Lacanian School

by Paul Löffler

Religions 2024, 15(9), 1139; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091139 - 21 Sep 2024

Viewed by 819

Abstract

The ritual of marriage serves as a nexus for various dimensions of social and personal life, including sexuality, gender, religiosity, family, and parenthood. This pivotal event is laden with a multitude of expectations, hopes, and fears for all involved parties. The psychological energies converge not only within the spouses or participants but extend to encompass the entire cultural community. Simultaneously, it represents a ritualistic identification, where individuals, through the ritual, become what they are, establishing an identity. This article aims to provide a Lacanian interpretation of the marriage ritual, informed by the interpretation popularized by the Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis. Lacan’s framework allows for the conceptualization of identification as a socially mediated process, revealing the psyche as extending beyond the individual into intersubjective structures. This approach might help to clarify the inner logic of the ritual, allowing for a better understanding of the role of medialization. It will be shown, that under these lenses wedding photography and other forms of medialization do not only preserve memories of the event afterward but are already playing an active and even constitutive role during the event. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

9 pages, 3838 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Inter-Religious Architecture for Wedding Spaces

by Mariateresa Giammetti

Religions 2024, 15(8), 1022; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15081022 - 22 Aug 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1048

Abstract

Culture and media transform each other through mediatization. Mediatization interacts between culture and media through artifacts of material and visual culture to convey its messages to as many people as possible. Religion is an important component of culture, so it may be interesting to analyze the influence of mediatization on specific religious practices such as rites, particularly the rite of marriage. The processes of mediatization in marriage rites act performatively on physical and cultural space, and they are reshaping religious values and norms. Starting from the relationship between the ritual form of marriage and the physical shape of the architecture designed to host them, this article analyzes the relationship between mediatization and interfaith marriage rites. The objective is to show how the condition of inter-religiousness can demonstrate the presence of invariants in the structure of marriage rites and the architectural characterof the spaces where they take place. This article aims to demonstrate that the performative dimension of the space of marriage rites is based on these invariants, which are becoming one of the main tools through which mediatization is acting. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

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16 pages, 4712 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Visual Representations of Weddings in the Middle Ages: Reflections of Legal, Religious, and Cultural Aspects

by Jörg Wettlaufer

Religions 2024, 15(8), 1011; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15081011 - 19 Aug 2024

Viewed by 1792

Abstract

Wedding rituals and ceremonies have been depicted in various forms of literature, art, and illuminated manuscripts in medieval times. These representations offer valuable insights into the cultural, religious, and social aspects of weddings during that period. This article considers the state of research on visual representations of the wedding ceremony in the Middle Ages and how these pictures reflect legal, religious, and cultural/social aspects of medieval life in Europe. Using examples from various religious, literary, and legal texts, several questions will be addressed: In which contexts were the pictures of wedding ceremonies created? What is depicted and what is not? Which legal, religious, and cultural aspects are reflected in the medieval visualizations of the wedding ritual and how do the visualizations correspond to the religious, legal, and cultural setting of the wedding ritual in the Middle Ages? Illuminated legal manuscripts, particularly the Liber Extra, the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, reveal much about the rituals that signified the essence of the medieval wedding ceremony: the exchange of consent, the joining of the right hands (dextrarum iunctio), and the blessing of the union by a priest. Since the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, marriage was considered a sacrament by the Church, making the ritual a fulcrum of religious life. However, only the consummation of a marriage was able to bring the property-related effects of marriage into effect, and some pictures from a secular context refer to this part of the wedding ceremony. The primary function of these visual representations of marriage was the illustration of the text, in both canon law manuscripts and medieval literature. Therefore, they are, besides the textual transmission, valuable sources and crucial interpretive keys for understanding the legal and socio-cultural dimensions that shaped the institution of marriage in medieval Europe. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

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13 pages, 4121 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wedding, Marriage, and Matrimony—Glimpses into Concepts and Images from a Church Historical Perspective since the Reformation

by Benedikt Bauer

Religions 2024, 15(8), 938; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080938 - 1 Aug 2024

Viewed by 1189

Abstract

This contribution provides three church-historical glimpses into concepts and images that deal in different ways with the idea of the union of two parties and communicate it through media. The material under discussion is analysed from a gender perspective. Firstly, the Reformation period is discussed as a process of the valorisation of sexuality, the defence of priestly marriage by Philipp Melanchthon is examined, and attention is drawn to the so-called Oeconomialiteratur, which regulated the cohabitation of spouses. The article then turns to bridal mysticism in order to analyse the gender construction of Jesus and the male members of the Moravians on the basis of the “Kleines Brüdergesangbuch”. It is emphasised that various options can be discussed, but that the concept of a leading masculinity of Jesus is the most appropriate for the description of the multiple masculinity constructions of the specific episode of the so-called “Sichtungszeit” of this community. In a last step, the reception of images and ideas about Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther since the Reformation period will be used to discuss how their marriage and matrimony became denominational identifiers—both for Protestantism and for Catholicism. For this, the double portrait of Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther by Cranach as well as a polemical pamphlet from the time of the Thirty Years’ War and the invention of Katharina von Bora as a pastor‘s wife in the 19th century will be examined. By means of historical hermeneutics and a gender perspective, the article thus determines how media have both enabled the freedom to explore and establish new concepts and ideas as well as been used as a vehicle of regulation. In addition, the church-historical examples analysed also illustrate that wedding, marriage, and matrimony themselves became a medium to structure lives, to communicate religious and social issues, and to reject, construct, consolidate, and pass on denominational identities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

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17 pages, 3713 KiB

Open AccessArticle

For Ever and Ever the Perfect Wedding Picture: Converging Religious and Secular Norms and Values in Wedding Photography

by Marie-Therese Mäder

Religions 2024, 15(6), 705; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060705 - 6 Jun 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1198

Abstract

The paper examines how stylistic norms of wedding photography express, affirm, adapt, and reshape religious and secular values by combining ethical considerations with qualitative ethnographic observations. The first part offers a critique of the distinction between civil secular and religious weddings in current scholarship. In the second part, the relation between norms and values in an ethics of wedding photos is elaborated. The discussion is illustrated with examples from a study with 27 married couples and their wedding photos. The study reveals two key aspects: In the production of wedding photos, the triangular relation between the couple, their guests, and the location, the so-called locationship, is staged through the lens of the camera. In this triangle, the blending of religious and secular norms and values could be observed. Another significant aspect is how norms and values originating from wedding photography of religious ceremonies continue to impact secular norms and values. It is particularly noteworthy that religion serves as an aesthetic matrix in wedding photography, contributing to a “visual enchantment”, irrespective of whether the ceremony is religious or secular in nature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

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11 pages, 238 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Marriage as Institution

by Carla Danani

Religions 2024, 15(6), 675; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060675 - 30 May 2024

Viewed by 1879

Abstract

The text develops philosophical considerations on the “institutional” dimension of marriage. First of all, the meaning of “institution” is problematized, as it is so much disputed and controversially interpreted today. On the one hand, in fact, it is circumscribed to denote a repressive reality—restraining, delaying, even disciplining—considered necessary and rescuing by some scholars, yet harmful and dangerous by others. On the other hand, accentuating its verbal form, “institution” is also understood in terms of movement, as the novelty that results from the act of instituting, as a discontinuity that opens a field of possibilities. Paul Ricœur considers institutions as part of the ethical tripod, i.e., of the ways through which human beings can flourish. In the context of these divergent understandings, this paper secondly considers the possibility to speak of marriage as an institution and to take marriage rituals as an example both of rite of passage and aggregation rituals. Bourdieu says that the separation achieved in rituals has a “consecrating” effect. Third, the paper questions whether functional and symbolic changes in marriage and marriage rituals can affect their institutional status and problematize their consequences. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

24 pages, 4434 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Six Rites of Allied Harmony: Changes in Ancient Chinese Wedding Ceremonies under the Influence of Confucianism

by Yu Wu and Zhidiankui Xu

Religions 2023, 14(12), 1528; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121528 - 11 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 9518

Abstract

Ancient Chinese wedding ceremonies served as the solemn rituals for witnessing and establishing marriage, primarily aimed at forging kinship ties between two families and fulfilling the obligations of ancestral worship and lineage continuation. Within the Confucian tradition, the family and the state have always been interconnected, and ancient Chinese weddings, dating back to the Zhou dynasty, have maintained the fundamental order of both the family and society. This article primarily explores the influence of Confucianism on ancient Chinese wedding rituals and customs, as well as the historical evolution of wedding ceremonies throughout different dynasties. According to Confucian principles, the main procedures of the wedding ceremony included six rituals: “Nacai” (proposal ceremony), “Wenming” (name inquiry), “Naji” (betrothal gift ceremony), “Nazheng” (gifts for the selection of the auspicious day), “Qingqi” (asking for a wedding date), and “Qinying” (wedding procession). These six rituals were collectively known as the “Six Rites”. This study found that, during the Qin and Han dynasties and the Tang and Song dynasties, there were two important stages of reform of wedding ceremonies under the influence of Confucianism. The “Six Rites” were streamlined and merged into the “Three Rites”, gradually becoming more secular. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the interaction between Confucianism and the wedding ceremony weakened until the Republic of China period, when traditional constraints were broken. It is evident that the “Six Rites” have continued to serve as the template of traditional Chinese weddings and have been the important basis for subsequent wedding customs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

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