Ambitious ... highly interesting. * Zeitschriften- und Bücherschau (trans. by Bloomsbury Academic) * This is a bold and ambitious volume, not only in its conceptual scope, but also for its range of disciplinary perspectives and comparative focus. Taken together, the essays convey the vibrancy of religious studies today, as well as the centrality of approaches that take account of materiality and the senses. A must-have book for all serious students of the role of images within Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. -- MATTHEW ENGELKE, Professor of Religion, Columbia University, USA Combining theoretical sophistication with a vital awareness of historical diversity, this book provides a series of refreshing studies of the broad repertoire of mediations of, and contentions over, the unseen realm. It moves beyond the normative preference for the word as the singular canonical medium of Judaism, Christianity and religion and pictorial media. -- LIV INGEBORG LIED, Professor of Religious Studies, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway In the study of visual culture, it is hard to imagine a subject of investigation more important and telling than the tension between invisibility and visibility. For the visual cultures of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, this book explores that tension with sophistication, precision, and aplomb. It is essential reading. -- SIMON OMEARA, Lecturer in the History of Architecture & Archaeology of the Islamic Middle East, SOAS, University of London, UK
