Abstract

Americans of diverse religious backgrounds have striven to hear God’s voice or to respond to the call of other suprahuman forces. Yet despite increased attention to visual and material culture, religious studies research mostly has been deaf to the sounds of American religious life and to the significance of hearing as a spiritual practice. This essay explores the theoretical and methodological roots of this disciplinary deafness and offers theoretical resources from fields such as social history, anthropology, acoustic sciences, and phenomenology. It reviews recurring themes in research on sound and American religions—especially related to the role of music in constructing identity and difference—and suggests directions for further research, including the need to attend to how sound mediates contact among diverse religious communities. This essay encourages scholars to become more attuned to the sonic world of American religious life.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00164.x