Items from a colorful, intriguing and still-growing collection of religious items have been on display at C.H. Booth Library recently. Visitors to 25 Main Street were introduced to the Secondhand Sacred project last summer. From mid-August until just last week, “Secondhand Sacred: (Ir)Reverent Fun” presented ephemeral items based in religion in side by side display cases on the third floor of the Main Street institution.

By mid-October, “Domestic Devotion” was installed in one of the display cases on the first floor of the library. Also part of the Secondhand Sacred project, the current presentation offers a fraction of the curated collection of James Bielo, a Newtown resident and an associate professor of religious studies at Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences who continues to find and curate items into his research project in the anthropology of religion.

“Domestic Devotion” presents items that have been used to decorate homes. Combining Christian imagery and functionary purpose, the collection invites viewers to consider how everyday home life is made sacred.

Through the location of all items within the Secondhand Sacred collection through estate sales, thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls, auction houses, eBay, Instagram, and gift exchange, Bielo’s collection continues to grow.

As a banner across one page of 2ndhandreligion.com states: Churches close. Producers stop producing. People die. Things survive.

Bielo’s fieldwork, also according to his website, explores the circulation of these Christian items by the full- and part-time sellers who search (“scavenge,” his website states) secondhand venues in search of donated, discarded and passed-over items. His goal is to better understand how Christian material culture is circulated through secondhand economies.

Through his research, Bielo also hopes to answer a few questions: How does Christian material culture circulate through secondhand economies? Also, how is circulation informed by ethical commitments, ambivalences, and negotiations regarding what is appropriate to source, sell, and buy?

At Booth Library, the display case currently hosting “Domestic Devotion” is teeming with objects, from the expected — such as nesting dolls, triptychs, busts and artwork — to the unexpected — ink stamps with biblical verses, a travel mug and even a VHS tape with a 75-minute workout combining bench aerobics and strength exercises with praise and worship music. It is a colorful, entertaining and insightful look at some of the ways religion finds its way into many homes.

While that presentation was recently extended to January 31, the library is still not finished sharing Bielo’s collection.

Following “Domestic Devotion,” there are plans to present at least three additional collections. “(Ir)Reverent Fun” has been replaced with “Wearing and Carrying,” which will remain on view until March 30. That will be replaced with “Ephemera in Circulation.”

“Wearing and Carrying” showcases materials that have been divested by previous owners — cast off as sacred waste, vestiges of lived religion. The objects displayed are both personal and public. Some objects are Catholic, others Protestant, and others less decided.

The Newtown presentation is the second for this collection. It debuted at The Martin Marty Center (University of Chicago) in mid-September, where it was exhibited for three months.

On the first floor, “Pilgrimage Near and Far” will be installed in late March, replacing “Domestic Devotion.”

For those who would like to learn about the collection from its curator, Bielo is scheduled to speak at the library on Saturday, April 12, at 2 pm. He will offer an introduction to how the work got started and how it has evolved to feature public exhibitions at his hometown library as well as at the University of Chicago.

C.H. Booth Library is open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 am-8 pm; Friday and Saturday, 9:30 am-5 pm; and Sunday, 12-5 pm. “Secondhand Sacred” is accessible any time the library is open.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.