Religion and Everyday Life and Culture

Religion and Everyday Life and Culture PDF

Author: Vincent F. Biondo

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2010-03-25

Total Pages: 1197

ISBN-13: 0313342792

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This intriguing three-volume set explores the ways in which religion is bound to the practice of daily life and how daily life is bound to religion. In Religion and Everyday Life and Culture, 36 international scholars describe the impact of religious practices around the world, using rich examples drawn from personal observation. Instead of repeating generalizations about what religion should mean, these volumes examine how religions actually influence our public and private lives "on the ground," on a day-to-day basis. Volume one introduces regional histories of the world's religions and discusses major ritual practices, such as the Catholic Mass and the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Volume two examines themes that will help readers understand how religions interact with the practices of public life, describing the ways religions influence government, education, criminal justice, economy, technology, and the environment. Volume three takes up themes that are central to how religions are realized in the practices of individuals. In these essays, readers meet a shaman healer in South Africa, laugh with Buddhist monks, sing with Bob Dylan, cheer for Australian rugby, and explore Chicana and Iranian art.

Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life

Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life PDF

Author: Marion Bowman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-14

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1317543548

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Vernacular religion is religion as people experience, understand, and practice it. It shapes everyday culture and disrupts the traditional boundaries between 'official' and 'folk' religion. The book analyses vernacular religion in a range of Christian denominations as well as in indigenous and New Age religion from the nineteenth century to today. How these differing expressions of belief are shaped by their individual, communal and national contexts is also explored. What is revealed is the consistency of genres, the persistence of certain key issues, and how globalization in all its cultural and technological forms is shaping contemporary faith practice. The book will be valuable to students of ethnology, folklore, religious studies, and anthropology.

Religion, Culture & Society

Religion, Culture & Society PDF

Author: Andrew Singleton

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2014-03-10

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 147390448X

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"The reader is taken on a global exploration of the forms and diversities of religions and their social and cultural contexts... It is up to the minute in research and theory, and comfortably grounded in the traditions of the social explanation of things religious and spiritual." - Gary Bouma AM, Monash University "Tells how sociology of religion originated in the work of key nineteenth and twentieth century theorists and then brings the story into the present era of globalization, hybrid spirituality, and the Internet. Students of religion will find this an engaging and informative survey of the field." - Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University "It considers the ‘big questions’ - What is religion? How is religion changing in a modern world? What is the future of religion? – and addresses them through tangible case studies and observations of contemporary life. Its global perspective reflects the breadth, diversity and vibrancy of this field." - Sylvia Collins-Mayo, Kingston University This is a rich and dynamic introduction to the varieties of religious life and the central issues in the sociology of religion today. It leads the reader through the key ideas and main debates within the field as well as offering in-depth descriptions and analysis of topics such as secularization, fundamentalism, Pentecostal Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, atheism, ‘The spiritual marketplace’, digital religion and new religions like Wicca. Emphasising religion as a global phenomenon, examining especially the ways in which globalization has had an impact on everyday religious life, Singleton has created an illuminating text suitable for students in a wide range of courses looking at religion as a social and cultural phenomenon.

Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis

Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis PDF

Author: Mattias Brand

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2022-05-20

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 900451029X

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Published in Open Access with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Winner of the Manfred Lautenschläger Award! Religion is never simply there. In Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis, Mattias Brand shows where and when ordinary individuals and families in Egypt practiced a Manichaean way of life. Rather than portraying this ancient religion as a well-structured, totalizing community, the fourth-century papyri sketch a dynamic image of lived religious practice, with all the contradictions, fuzzy boundaries, and limitations of everyday life. Following these microhistorical insights, this book demonstrates how family life, gift-giving, death rituals, communal gatherings, and book writing are connected to our larger academic debates about religious change in late antiquity.

Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes

Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes PDF

Author: Nancy Tatom Ammerman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 0199917361

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Nancy Tatom Ammerman examines the stories Americans tell of their everyday lives, from dinner table to office and shopping mall to doctor's office, about the things that matter most to them and the routines they take for granted, and the times and places where the everyday and ordinary meet the spiritual. In addition to interviews and observation, Ammerman bases her findings on a photo elicitation exercise and oral diaries, offering a window into the presence and absence of religion and spirituality in ordinary lives and in ordinary physical and social spaces. The stories come from a diverse array of ninety-five Americans — both conservative and liberal Protestants, African American Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Wiccans, and people who claim no religious or spiritual proclivities — across a range that stretches from committed religious believers to the spiritually neutral. Ammerman surveys how these people talk about what spirituality is, how they seek and find experiences they deem spiritual, and whether and how religious traditions and institutions are part of their spiritual lives.

Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Life

Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Life PDF

Author: Peter Nynäs

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-08

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1317067274

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Exploring the intersection between religion, gender and sexuality within the context of everyday life, this volume examines contested identities, experiences, bodies and desires on the individual and collective levels. With rich case studies from the UK, USA, Europe, and Asia, Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Life sheds light on the manner in which individuals appropriate, negotiate, transgress, invert and challenge the norms and models of various religions in relation to gender and sexuality, and vice versa. Drawing on fascinating research from around the world, this book charts central features of the complexities involved in everyday life, examining the messiness, limits, transformations and possibilities that occur when subjectivities, religious and cultural traditions, and politics meet within the local as well as transnational contexts. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of sociology, anthropology, geography and cultural studies examining questions of religion and spirituality, gender and sexuality, and individual and collective identities in contemporary society.

The Thing about Religion

The Thing about Religion PDF

Author: David Morgan

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2021-03-19

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1469662841

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Common views of religion typically focus on the beliefs and meanings derived from revealed scriptures, ideas, and doctrines. David Morgan has led the way in radically broadening that framework to encompass the understanding that religions are fundamentally embodied, material forms of practice. This concise primer shows readers how to study what has come to be termed material religion—the ways religious meaning is enacted in the material world. Material religion includes the things people wear, eat, sing, touch, look at, create, and avoid. It also encompasses the places where religion and the social realities of everyday life, including gender, class, and race, intersect in physical ways. This interdisciplinary approach brings religious studies into conversation with art history, anthropology, and other fields. In the book, Morgan lays out a range of theories, terms, and concepts and shows how they work together to center materiality in the study of religion. Integrating carefully curated visual evidence, Morgan then applies these ideas and methods to case studies across a variety of religious traditions, modeling step-by-step analysis and emphasizing the importance of historical context. The Thing about Religion will be an essential tool for experts and students alike. Two free, downloadable course syllabi created by the author are available online.