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Child's drawing from Karen McPhillips and Jenny Russell's project
Sacred Practices of Everyday Life
04 October 12
9 May - 11 May 2012, University of Edinburgh
Access podcasts and slides from Programme-supported project and plenary presentations from the list below, and download Programme and book of abstracts here and Director Linda Woodhead's plenary address here.
Roadside shrines; divorce parties; tattoos made with ink containing a loved one’s ashes; spiritual retreats; prayer cairns; naming ceremonies; healing rituals; contacts with the dead: however ‘disenchanted’ the world may be, there is plenty of evidence of enchantment and re-enchantment all around. Life and death are still rendered meaningful through ancient and reinvented practices, rituals, beliefs and symbols which attach sacredness and significance to what would otherwise be merely mundane.
The purpose of the conference was to explore new evidence, analysis and theory concerning the sacred practices of everyday life. There was a particular focus on the varied ways in which the life course is being re-enchanted in the 21st century, but also papers looking at other eras and/or larger forms of sacred practice (e.g. civic rituals).
The conference showcased twenty-two projects funded by the Religion and Society Programme which had new findings in this area alongside other new research. There were also plenary sessions with David Morgan (Duke), Mary Jo Neitz (Missouri) and Robert Orsi (Northwestern).
Presentation Podcasts
- David Morgan (Duke University) Plenary Address
- Mary Jo Neitz (University of Missouri) Plenary Address
- Robert Orsi (Northwestern University) Plenary Address
- Elizabeth Olson (Edinburgh) “Youth transitions, international volunteering and religious transformations”
- Jasjit Singh (Leeds) “Online Authorities? Young British Sikhs, Religious Transmission and the Internet”
- Jonathan Scourfield (Cardiff) “Islam in Middle Childhood”
- Hannah Rumble (Durham) “Natural Burial and the Corpse: from waste to gift”
- Douglas Davies (Durham) “Dissolving dead bodies”
- Chris Philo (Glasgow) “Life-lines: new-spiritual geographies in Brighton, UK”
- Avril Maddrell (University of the West of England) and Alessandro Scafi (Warburg Institute) “Landscape Aesthetics, meaning and experience in Christian pilgrimage”
- Sondra Hausner (Oxford) “Category and Practice: Two Aspects of Religion in the Nepali Diaspora”
- David Bebbington (Stirling) “Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism in Britain”
- Naomi Stanton (Open University) “From Sunday Schools to Christian Youth Work: young people’s engagement with organized Christianity in twentieth century England and the present day”
- John Atherton (William Temple Foundation) “More progress on religion and wellbeing”
- John and Sally Harper (Bangor) "Practice-led investigation of past experiences: the case of worship in late medieval cathedral and parish church”
- Navtej Purewal (Manchester) "Shrine Cultures in South Asia: Practices and Iconographies of a ‘Common’ Religion of Northwest India and Pakistan”
- Karen McPhillips and Jenny Russell (Ulster) "The relationship between youth identity and spatial perception within the context of religious architecture in Northern Ireland”
- Elizabeth Olson and Giselle Vincett (Edinburgh) “Relational Religious Identities”
- Liz Watson (Cambridge) “Landscapes of Religion, Identity and Conflict in Northern Kenya”
- Jacqueline Hayes “Experience of presence in bereavement; Symptoms, spirits, or ordinary lives?”
- Avril Maddrell (University of the West of England) “Mapping grief. Everyday spatialities of bereavement, mourning and remembrance”
- Pete Ward (KCL) “Ordinary Theology and Visual Culture among Polish Catholic young people”
- Gordon Lynch (Kent) “The meanings and uses of belief”
- Daniela Koleva (Sofia) and Peter Coleman (Southampton) “Marking Transitions and Meaning Across the Life Course”
- David Fergusson et al (Edinburgh) “Understanding the Encounter between Christianity, Psychotherapy and Spirituality in Scotland”
Related Projects
- The Production of Religious Architecture in a Diverse World
- The everyday urban spiritual: placing spiritual practices in context
- Landscape aesthetics, meaning and experience in Christian pilgrimage
- Modest Dressing: faith-based fashion and internet retail
- Marking Transitions and Meaning across the Life Course: Older People's Memories of Religious and Secular Ceremonies in Eastern and Western Europe
- The experience of worship in late medieval cathedral and parish church: investigation, realisation and interpretation
- Vernacular Religion: Varieties of Religiosity in the Nepali Diaspora
- Theology and Therapy: Christianity, Psychotherapy & Spirituality in Scotland 1945-2000
- From Sunday Schools to Christian Education
- Keeping the Faith: The transmissions of "Sikhism" among young British Sikhs (18-30)
- Belief as cultural performance
- Migration and Visual Culture
- Marginalized Spiritualities
- British Woodland Burial: its theological, ecological and social values
- Promoting Greater Human Wellbeing
- Queer Spiritual Space(s)
- Religious nurture in Muslim families
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