Religion in English Everyday Life: An Ethnographic Approach

Timothy Jenkins

Published by Berghahn Books 1999

Religion in English Everyday Life

An Ethnographic Approach

Timothy Jenkins

Volume 5 in the series Methodology & History in Anthropology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781789205732

Overview
Contents

About this book

Starting from an ethnographic appraisal of the place of religious practices, and thereby returning to an approach more recently neglected, this book offers a detailed understanding of English everyday life. Three contemporary case studies - the life of a country church, an annual procession by the churches in a Bristol suburb, a range of linked "spiritualist" beliefs - disclose the complex patterns and compulsion of ordinary lives, including both moral and historical dimensions: the distribution of reputation and conflict, and the continuities of place and identity. At the same time, the approach revises previous accounts of English social life by giving a nuanced description of the construction of local lives in interaction with their wider setting. It demonstrates the creation of local particularity under an outside gaze, showing how actors create and cope with the forces of "modernity." In addition to the original ethnographic descriptions, the book also contributes to the history and theory of the study of complex societies.

Author / Editor information

Timothy Jenkins is a graduate of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, and of the Faculty of Theology, University of Cambridge. He has undertaken fieldwork in France and England and was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1986. Since 1992 he has taught at the Faculty of Theology, University of Cambridge, where he is Dean and Fellow of Jesus College.

Reviews

"Much of the interest and originality of the book inheres in the illuminating and sensitive analysis ... an important methodological contribution." · Journal of Contemporary Religion

"Jenkins is a perspicacious and insightful researcher ... An original and fascinating read." · World Faith Encounter

Topics

CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
MAPS AND TABLES Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
PREFACE Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
FOREWORD David Parkin Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
INTRODUCTION: RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS IN AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF EVERYDAY LIFE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I: TWO SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO RELIGION IN MODERN BRITAIN Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
PART II: THE COUNTRY CHURCH – THE CASE OF ST. MARY’S, COMBERTON Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
PART III: THE KINGSWOOD WHIT WALK
1 INTRODUCTORY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
2 THE WHIT WALK Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
3 FAMILY AND LOCALITY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
4 ‘FIENDS TRANSFORMED’ A DISCUSSION OF LOCAL HISTORY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
5 RESPECTABILITY, REPUTATION AND RESTRAINT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
6 ANXIETY, CONFLICT AND GOSSIP Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
7 IN CONCLUSION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
PART IV: SECRETS OF THE SPIRIT WORLD Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 272
Keywords: Anthropology of Religion; Theory and Methodology

eBook

Published: October 1, 1999
ISBN: 9781789205732