Artefacts and the Mediation of Transcendence

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

South Bohemia University

10.22091/jptr.2026.14963.3506

Abstract

Material religion, as a broad field of inquiry, examines how material forms and embodied practices participate in the making of religious worlds. This article seeks to extend that conversation by drawing on insights from the phenomenology of technology. From this perspective, artefacts—whether explicitly religious or not—are not passive symbols but active mediators that shape and extend perception. They configure how the sacred is sensed, enacted, and made present. By attending to the mediating function of tools and technologies, the analysis highlights how material engagements can open experiential horizons that would otherwise remain beyond immediate reach. In this sense, both scientific instruments and religious artefacts function as extensions of human embodiment, enabling access to domains—such as transcendence—that would remain inaccessible without them. The article concludes that, within religious contexts, artefacts serve either to draw the transcendent into the immanent or to elevate the immanent toward the transcendent, and are therefore far from passive.

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Journal of Philosophical Theological Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 03 May 2026

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