I hopp om det eviga livet. Dopfunten som performativt objekt

Resumé

In the Hope of Eternal Life.
The Baptismal Font as Performative Object
By Lars Berggren

Seeing and perceiving are complicated processes that we only during the last decades are beginning to understand. All images seem to be performative in the sense that they do something with and to us whether we like it, or are at all aware of it, or not. Therefore, it’s necessary to consider a number of religious objects and practices in a wider functional context. In this paper, it is argued that a Medieval baptismal font, due to the special status of Baptism, its iconography and positioning in the church, not only functioned in performative dialogue with the ritual of baptism, the various stages of Mass, and the building itself, but also served a number of important secular purposes: legal, social and political.