Individualized Religion: Practitioners and their Communities

This book explores individualized religion in and around Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, demonstrating that informal structures and practices can provide a viable basis for socially significant religious activity. The subjects claim a variety of religious identities and practices and participate actively in an overlapping and cross-linking network of practice communities and other associations, propagating and sustaining a core ideology that prioritizes subjectivity, locates authority at the individual level, and predicates itself on ideals of sharing, mutuality, and community.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 06 May 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This book delves into the realm of individualized religion in and around Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, drawing upon extensive ethnographic research. Claire Wanless compellingly argues that contrary to the assertions of secularization theorists, the combination of informal structures and practices can serve as a robust foundation for socially significant religious activity that can endure and thrive. The subjects of this study possess a diverse range of religious identities and practices, exhibiting a skepticism towards religious institutions, hierarchies, rules, and dogmas. Nonetheless, they actively engage in an interconnected and overlapping network of practice communities and other associations. Through their participation, they propagate and sustain a fundamental ideology that emphasizes subjectivity, places authority at the individual level, and is grounded in ideals of sharing, mutuality, and community. This book offers a fresh perspective on religious association, challenging the secularization thesis prevalent in the UK and paving the way for further exploration into the complexities of individual religion.

Weight: 456g
Dimension: 241 x 171 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350182509