David Morgan, Professor of Religious Studies

Please note: David has left the "Graduate Program in Religion" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

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 is currently Director of Graduate Studies in Duke's PhD program in Religion. 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 associate 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. His latest book appeared this year from the University of North Carolina Press, entitled "The Thing about Religion: An Introduction to the Material Study of Religions."

Contact Info:

Office Location:	Department of Religious Studies, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	(919) 660-3555
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.duke.edu/%7Edm127/Site/Intro.html

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• RELIGION 392.01, INDEPENDENT STUDY Synopsis

  Gray 319, F 01:40 PM-04:10 PM

• RELIGION 859S.01, CATHOLIC VISUAL PIETY Synopsis

  Gray 319, F 01:40 PM-04:10 PM

  (also cross-listed as ARTHIST 859S.01, VMS 859S.01)

Education:

Ph.D.	The University of Chicago	1990
M.A.	University of Arizona	1984
B.A.	Concordia College	1980

Specialties:

Religious Visual Culture
American Religious History
Critical Theory
Culture
Religion and Media

Research Interests: material culture of religion, religion and media

Current projects: The Forge of Vision: Image and Imagination in Modern Christianity, delivered as the 2012 Cadbury Lectures, University of Birmingham, England, March 7 to 15, 2012.

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. His most recent book is The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling (California, 2012). Other books are: 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 include: 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.”

Areas of Interest:

Religious Material Culture
American Religions
Religion and Media
Art Theory

Keywords:

Anthropology • Art • Christian art and symbolism • Communities • History • Material culture • Religion • Sympathy

Current Ph.D. Students  

• Brenna Jorgenson  
• Torang Asadi  
• Jamie Brummitt  
• Stephanie Gehring  
• Eric Chalfant  
• Adrienne Krone  
• Sonia Hazard  
• Andrew Coates  

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Morgan, D, The sacred gaze: Religious visual culture in theory and practice (September, 2023), pp. 1-318, ISBN 9780520243064  [abs]
2. Morgan, D, Agency, Images, and Visual Culture: the impact of Hans Belting, Material Religion, vol. 19 no. 3 (January, 2023), pp. 310-311 [doi]
3. Morgan, D, RELIGION, in Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion: a Critical Exploration (January, 2022), pp. 105-110, ISBN 9781350243811
4. Morgan, D, The Visual Culture of Revelation: Visions and the Images that Reveal Them, Irish Theological Quarterly, vol. 86 no. 3 (August, 2021), pp. 223-240 [doi]  [abs]
5. Morgan, D, Religious Materiality in the Early Modern World. Suzanna Ivanič, Mary Laven, and Andrew Morrall, eds. Visual and Material Culture, 1300–1700 18. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019. 262 pp. + color pls. €109, Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 74 no. 2 (June, 2021), pp. 648-650, Cambridge University Press (CUP) [doi]

Selected Invited Lectures

1. "The Look of the Sacred", May 16, 2008    
2. "Religion, Media, Culture: The Shape of the Field", April 11, 2008    
3. “Looking Beyond the Modern Bubble: Medieval Art and the Study of Modern Visual Culture”, March 15, 2008    
4. "Marian Visual Piety and the Economy of Belief", March 02, 2007