Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-jbjwg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-11T03:50:58.713Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Dolls and Idols in the English Reformation

from Part II - Objects and Places

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2020

Alexandra Walsham
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Ceri Law
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Brian Cummings
Affiliation:
University of York
Get access

Summary

This chapter begins with a sermon from the 1530s that describes the iconoclastic practice of giving formerly sacred objects to children, in order to desacralise them. It shows that this was a widespread activity during the Reformation, and relates this practice of iconoclastic child’s play to the common polemical tactic of comparing traditional Roman Catholic religion to the inane playing of children. It then argues, however, that the actual transformation of such objects into playthings is more complex than this polemical elision, and shows that, when related to broader Christian traditions, the implicit claim that playing with an object is necessarily to demean it becomes far less clear. Play could be a way of accessing or reflecting the divine, not trivialising it. The object of iconoclastic child’s play, suspended between idol and doll, does not therefore clearly lack value, but becomes a potent and unstable object upon which competing conceptions and valuations converge, and within which they can co-exist.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×