Understanding Struggles About Material Religious Forms in Terms of Resonance and Loss

This article examines emotional and practical responses to the damaging, demolition, or repurposing of church buildings in contemporary Western Europe. Drawing on research on the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and the repurposing of a neighborhood church in Amsterdam, it explores why even individuals who do not, or no longer, identify as Christians may experience such developments as profound losses. Using Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance and Andreas Reckwitz’s theory of loss, I argue that culturalized religious forms can acquire ethical significance because they become part of the social and material world through which individuals develop their practical self-understanding. This perspective helps explain experiences of belonging, resonance, and loss associated with Christian material forms. However, I also argue that such experiences do not by themselves justify preservation politics or the privileged status of historically dominant religious traditions. The article therefore combines an interpretation of attachments to culturalized Christian forms with a critical reflection on their political ambivalence in contemporary religiously diverse democratic societies committed to political equality and freedom of religion or belief.