Below you will find the questionnaire. Do feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you like, as brief or as detailed as you like. Above all, do feel free to get back to me if YOU have any questions, concerns, suggestions - I believe that good research is a two-way process. All answers will be treated confidentially - your name or email will not appear in the thesis without your express permission.
Since the web host does not offer the possibility to directly answer the questionnaire on this page, I suggest you copy and paste it into a Word document and send it to me as an email attachment. My email address is: j.geisbusch@ucl.ac.uk
Why does matter matter? What can relics do that cannot be done (or not as effectively) through verbal, ritual or spiritual means such as prayer, attendance at mass, or Bible reading? In this section I want to know what do you actually do with your relics and what they mean to you.
1. In a few words, why are you interested in relics?
2. Do you carry them around, close to you – always? occasionally? – for example in a wallet or as a pendant?
3. How do you keep your relics? Do you have a special place for them, a special box or drawer, do you have a home altar, or even a kind of private "mini oratory"?
4. How present are relics in your daily life? Are they with you most or all the time? Or are they set apart for particular moments, e.g. religious holidays, moments of personal distress, moments of recollection?
5. What function do they have in your religious life? For example, do they:
6. Could you tell me a bit about your story and your faith? Where relics or other religious objects like images, rosaries, scapulars part of your upbringing? Or are they something you grew into later? Something you discovered at a particular moment? Or did you perhaps return to them after a phase without? If so, how did this come about?
7. What's your opinion on the old question about faith and material objects – many say, it's the faith that counts; but then why are objects (like relics, pictures or scapulars) still important? And are they important?
8. The other aspect of materiality that interests me is the importance (or otherwise) of a relic's appearance, its look, so to speak. For example, does it matter whether:
9. Do you feel there can be tensions between the ways how people actually see and use relics and the teachings of the Church hierarchy? If so, have you experienced this?
The anthropologist William A Christian calls the church "a decentralised, collective articulated process that serves the spiritual needs of Catholics and perpetuates itself, a community of memory with a particular purpose." In this respect I'm interested in the connection between relics and memory:
10. Do relics embody memory for you, do you use relics to remember?
11. If so, what is it you remember through relics? For example, the teachings of the Church, its history? Or perhaps moments or persons of your personal history?
12. Do you have a favourite saint, a special relationship? Would you like to tell how he or she became your favourite?
13. What makes, for you personally, a relic a relic, what makes it authentic? For example:
14. At how many "removes" from the body of a saint is a relic still a relic? Where does the "power of contact" begin to wear off? Is a 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th class relic still as precious or important as a 1st class relic to you?
15. How do you judge the authenticity of a relic?
16. Do you have a number of relics? How many? What kind of relics are these?
17. Do you collect relics in a kind of systematic way, and if so, why?
18. Are there relics on display for public veneration in a church near you? Is this important to you?
19. In general, do you think it is a good idea to have relics for public veneration? Should there be more? Or was it good that many churches removed their relics in the 1960s/70s?
20. If you own any relics yourself - how did you get them? For example, as presents from friends, family or your priest, at a shrine or pilgrimage center? Did you buy them?
21. Do you give them away sometimes, for example, to friends or family?
22. Do you think relics should be more easily available to the faithful for private devotion? Or is it better to restrict private access?
23. You may have heard that relics are available through eBay - what do you think about this? Would you consider purchasing (or selling) relics in this way?
24. If you have already used eBay to obtain relics - does it make a difference if a seller says it's the reliquary that's for sale, while the relic itself will be a gift? (Or, if you are a seller, do you include this specification in your own listings?)
25. How do you see the Church injunction on the trade of relics? Does it make good sense, or does it depend on the good (or bad) intentions on the parties involved? For example:
26. What do you think is it that makes commercial exchange so problematic? Or vice versa, why is gift exchange preferable?
27. A question for regular and professional sellers – where do you get your items from, mostly? I'm not asking for your exact sources, just broad categories: old churches or monasteries that want to raise some money; priests, monks, nuns with good connections in Rome or to religious orders; the antiques trade; flea markets; private persons selling an inheritance etc.
28. How do you estimate the risk of fraud on eBay? Do you think there are many fake relics on offer? In your eyes, what makes a fake a fake, when would you feel cheated?
Finally, just a few questions on your personal background.
29. How old are you?
30. Are you male or female?
31. How would you describe your ethnic background?
32. How would you describe your denomination?
33. Are you laity or clergy (if so, regular or secular)?
34. If laity, what's your professional background?