In an innovative, pluri-disciplinary approach this volume focuses on how memory in Sacred Heart devotion is created, promulgated and transformed. The volume with contributions by historians, theologians, religious scientists and art historians links the dimension of memory to that of iconography, language, body and ritual practices and sheds light on adaptations, transfers, contestations and variations in a perspective of longue durée from the late Middle Ages to the present. The first part of the volume develops central axes of analysis, which are specifically investigated in the two following parts. The contributions of part two intertwine perspectives of cultural, social and art history focusing on the multi-layered creation, public presence and political usage, diversity and variations of Sacred Heart iconography and devotion in a long-term perspective. In-depth analyses centre on late medieval northern Italy, early modern France and 18th-century Switzerland (Eidgenossenschaft), on France from the 1950s to the 1980s, and on Indonesia in the 20th and 21st centuries. In a dynamic way, the third part combines systematic theological, philosophical and didactic reflexions on the Sacred Heart with a focus on imagination, embodiment, spirituality and memory.

Marcello Neri teaches theology at the Europe-University of Flensburg (Catholic Studies and European Cultures and Society Program). He is member of the Interdisciplinary Center for European Studies at the EUF and director of the international research project "Paolo Prodi: Religion and Public Square in Europe". He has had visiting professorships at many universities in Europe and United States. He is also editor with the online pastoral magazine SettimanaNews and contributing editor with the cultural-political magazine Il Mulino.