Curator Stephen Inglis and the ? display featuring a picture of Elvis. Photo by Deborah Gyapong / CCN.Exhibit explores universal themes of religions and reveals their diversity
By Deborah Gyapong
Canadian Catholic News

GATINEAU (CCN)--A new exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) called God(s): A User’s Guide manages to explore the diversity of religious belief without falling prey to moral relativism.

It also conveys the amazing diversity of religious expression through artifacts from a wide range of faiths and multi-media presentations.

The exhibition manages not to offend any of the great monotheistic faiths, at least according to an Imam, a Rabbi, and an Anglican minister invited by the Ottawa Citizen to view it. All in all, they had a favorable impression, the Citizen reported.

The exhibit, which opened Dec. 2 and will run until Sept. 3, 2012, invites people to contemplate the ultimate questions about meaning that underlie all religious faiths. These questions include the existence of God, the creation of the universe, and life after death.

“Through this exhibition, we hope to generate ongoing discussion on how to think about the role of religion in the context of a contemporary world, an increasingly globalized world, and a culturally diverse Canada,” said the exhibit’s curator Stephen Inglis.

The exhibit was first developed at the Museum of Europe and Tempora SA in Brussels, to encourage respect and tolerance among the many religious faiths being practiced in Europe.

The new exhibit gives the CMC an opportunity to showcase many First Nations’ examples, such as a replica of a famous shaman’s coat, lovingly crafted in fur and hand sewn,

One statute of a Hindu god, a Dancing Shiva, came to the CMC from a restaurant in Ottawa’s Byward Market, Inglis said. A Torah Ark that had once housed the sacred scrolls in a Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, synagogue dominates one wall. Atop the ark were two hand-carved lions commissioned from a Montreal Carver. The synagogue in the Cape Breton mining town once served 2,000 Jewish worshippers, but has since closed.

A large roadside Crucifix from Quebec that had been hand-carved in a primitive style is also on display. Inglis explained that roadside crosses were very popular in Quebec, and while Christian, spoke to concerns in various religions about the spiritual evil lurking at crossroads.

Inglis stressed how religions often borrowed from each other or appropriated into their traditions those of other faiths.

In a room devoted to places of worship, one wall was devoted to pictures and a first-person testimony of the Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are obligated to try to make in their lifetime. In the centre was a model of the church at Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré on loan from the basilica-shrine.

“It exemplifies for Canada pilgrimage because it is a great site of pilgrimage but also religious diversity, because not only Catholics go to Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre,” he said, stressing the importance of the site for First Nations’ peoples.

Along one wall, were the types of souvenirs one can obtain from pilgrimage sites all over the world, including souvenirs from Muslim, Sikh, Shinto, and other religious sites. This includes kitschy items such as a Pope John Paul II bottle opener.

A screen also played images of places of worship from around the world, from myriad religious traditions. Inglis had recently added an image of the Mosque of the Midnight Sun in Inuvik, NWT, that was built in Manitoba and shipped by truck 4,000 km to its final destination.

“It’s the longest journey of a building in history,” he said.

One display case differed from the other in that it had a big question mark embossed on the glass. Inside was a picture of Elvis Presley. There were also a picture of revolutionary Che Guevara, and two Chinese medals, one picturing the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy Quan Yin, and another of former Chinese dictator Mao Zedong, which could be hung from one’s rear view mirror.

“We’re not suggesting these are religions or that they compare with religions,” Inglis said.

Instead, he stressed this exhibit was designed to raise the question whether cults and modern political movements could take on aspects normally associated with religion.

Inglis said he found the picture of Elvis in a Vancouver second-hand shop. “He is really looking out at his fans in a way that is somehow more than ‘I’m a singer,’” he said. “I think it draws on religious charisma.”

One wall features a display of screens showing photographs of how the body is treated in various faiths, from naked sadhus in India, to burka-clad women in Afghanistan, to tattoos, burial ceremonies, cremation and other events in the life of faith. The photographs offer a glimpse of immense diversity in religious expression.

The exhibit whets the appetite for the CMC’s permanent collection, which includes a prairie Byzantine Catholic Church that is still consecrated and extensive Canadian First Nations’ exhibits.