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Zusatztext A number of ethnographies of vernacular religion and the holistic milieu have recently appeared. But the specific form of religion which sustains them remains undertheorised. Individualised Religion: Practitioners and their Communities addresses this gap though a ground-breaking case study of ‘individualised religion’. Based in an ethnography of non-aligned Buddhists, Pagans and Quakers in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, Wanless recovers and theorises a nuanced middle ground of practitioners and their communities who do ‘religion’ between the polar extremes of secularization and spiritual revolution. Based in theories of learning and community practice rarely employed in the Study of Religion/s, this is a benchmark study in how the holistic milieu actually works. Informationen zum Autor Claire Wanless is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, UK Vorwort Explores and theorizes the increasingly socially significant phenomenon of individualized religion, drawing on an extensive ethnography of Hebden Bridge, a former industrial town in the UK. Zusammenfassung Drawing on ethnographic research, this book explores individualized religion in and around Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. Claire Wanless demonstrates that counter to the claims of secularization theorists, the combination of informal structures and practices can provide a viable basis for socially significant religious activity that can sustain itself.The subjects of this research claim a variety of religious identities and practices, and are suspicious of religious institutions, hierarchies, rules and dogmas. Yet they participate actively in an overlapping and cross-linking informal network of practice communities and other associations. Their engagements propagate and sustain a core ideology that prioritizes subjectivity, locates authority at the level of the individual, and also predicates itself on ideals of sharing, mutuality and community.Providing a new theory of religious association, this book is a nuanced counterpoint to the secularization thesis in the UK and points the way to new research on individual religion. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. Introduction 2. Theorizing religion in the 21st century3. The Upper Calder Valley4. A Diversity of Practice5. The Character of Individualized Religion6. Individuals in Community7. Conclusion...
