Religion, Museums and the Modern World
Religion, Museums and the Modern World

Summary/Abstract: Museums are places in which cultures come together equally to interpret, promote or reinforce ideas about societies. In terms of religious museums (or museums which also include some religious artefacts) this implies a paradigm shift in the ways religion is interpreted or permitted to be interpreted within the modern world. This paper will first consider relevant literature highlighting changing attitudes to religion and how this potentially impacts on museums. It will then offer arguments as to why there are very few museums of world faith with the St. Mungo Museum, Glasgow, The State Museum of the History of Religion (MHR), St. Petersburg and the Museum of World Religions (MWR), Taiwan being the key sites considered here. It will then look at the origins of these museums, how they present faiths and will focus on the key case study of the Museum of World Religions (MWR), Taiwan. Lastly the potential future of the museum as religious site or places in which to discover religion will be explored.

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