A “New Creation”?: Material Culture Among Catholics in Singapore’s Columbaria

In a Singapore state-run columbarium where people of different religions are put to rest, it is common to see dollhouse-sized polymer clay miniatures of foods of local fare and other everyday items attached to the niche plaque or the base of a columbarium niche. While they are present across multiple religious traditions represented the columbarium, these are especially common on Christian niches. While niches in Catholic columbariums in Singapore also contain these polymer clay miniatures, there are significantly fewer of them. Instead, Chinese New Year and Christmas decorations abound. Using photographic documentation as a starting point, this presentation will :1) analyze the semantic complexity of various material objects surrounding and affixed to columbarium niches of Catholics in Singapore with attention to their theological and social dimensions; 2) contrast the ways in which Catholic and state-run columbariums function as ritual spaces that reflect, generate and sustain theologies of ancestors and family differently; and 3) propose that columbariums are overlooked spaces of primary theology (theologia prima) – a source of theology that is lived, embodied, and experienced – through which material expressions of local theologies as “new creations” emerge.