Violent traumatic events impact communities and demand ministerial responses that are not only pastoral in nature but also prophetic, challenging institutional and sociocultural roots of violence through vision and analysis. There is a noticeable gap in qualitative studies of the prophetic pastoral practices of organized trauma response ministries in addressing violence. This dissertation addresses this gap through qualitative case studies of two trauma response ministries operating in diverse cultural contexts. The dissertation forges a beginning constructive practical theology of trauma from the voices, experiences, and practices of survivors and their trauma response ministry providers, lifting up the need for an intercultural approach and examining the results for untapped theological resources for constructive practical theologies of trauma. By integrating trauma studies into lived religion approaches, this dissertation conceptualizes survivors' use of material objects, rituals, and surroundings to enact a 'theopoetics of material religion.' This theopoetics captures the constructive theological significance of survivors' use of material objects, rituals, and surroundings for prophetic and performative testimony and witness. The introduction and chapter one make the case that addressing the problem of violent trauma in the American context calls for an approach rooted in prophetic pastoral care practices, one that is attentive to the particular contextual realities and resources of communities living in the aftermath of trauma. Using a lived religion methodological approach enhanced by trauma studies and a theopoetics of material religion, chapter two presents a case study of an inner-city lay-led trauma response ministry that serves family survivors of homicide. Chapter three presents a case study of a denominational-based trauma response ministry's services to a suburban congregation following a gun assault. Chapter four illustrates the theological themes witnessed in each case study and places these in intercultural dialogue. The final chapter engages current constructive theologies of trauma and brings the insights of the case studies to bear on interpretations of theology in the aftermath of trauma. The dissertation begins to forge of a constructive practical theology of trauma and concludes with strategic recommendations for constructive practical theologians, pastoral care providers, and social and ecclesial structures.

No description available.

In Pure Lust, Mary Daly claims that the Virgin Mary is an “image of total subservience, the dethroned and sapped Goddess who was converted into a vessel.” Daly perceives Mary primarily through Christian scripture and other orthodox texts, ignoring her role as part of a religion lived and experienced outside of Church doctrine and dogma. This thesis explores how Mary is perceived and utilized by the laity, as opposed to the theological Mary, by specifically looking at how the Virgin Mary is imagined and experienced at the Our Lady of Ephesus Shrine in Western Turkey. Utilizing Robert Orsi’s lived religion approach and ethnographic research, this examination of the Virgin Mary will test Daly’s theologically based theory.

No description available.

Scholars and experts speak of a political apathy and a lack of political engagement in Jordan. In conventional studies of political engagement a large part of the actual everyday engagement of “the ordinary” is overlooked as it does not conform to the prevailing view of political or civic engagement.  Everyday politics as a field has developed as a response to this lacking view of political engagement or political behavior. The aim of the thesis is to find everyday political behaviors performed by Jordanian individuals. Additionally, everyday religious aspects according to the lived religion theory are discussed in relation to everyday politics as found.  A number of everyday political behaviors and everyday religious aspects of these were found through observations and interviews during two months of fieldwork in Amman, Jordan. Such behaviors were e.g. operating within the informal sector, relying on family and friends for money and labor, and derogatory joking about the regime. Religious aspects of these behaviors were e.g. explicit religious reasons for the behaviors, physical religious artifacts, and religious language.

Between February 1st and March 16th 2023 sixteen qualitative research interviews wereconducted with deans, vicars and priests of both the Catholic Church in Sweden and theEvangelical-Lutheran Church of Sweden with the aim to compare how they look at their religiousleadership, and what their answers might say about their respective theological traditions using asuggested theory called Comparative Lived Theology. The main research findings rendered fromthese interviews may be divided into the following three sections: firstly, top-down and bottom-upleadership approaches in a religious setting is descriptive of the structure of the religiousorganisations. Secondly, the fact that Evangelical-Lutheranism is a majority religious tradition inSweden sets it apart from minority traditions such as Catholicism, and this affects the religiousleadership. Thirdly, the interviews generated a notion that party politics plays a different role in thestructure of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Sweden than it does in the Catholic Church in Sweden.

Sammanfattning Syftet med denna etnografiska fältstudie är att utforska, förstå och skildra hur deltagare upplever de återkommande retreatdagarna i en svenskkyrklig församling utanför Stockholm. Centralt är att ta del av människors egna berättelser, hur de tolkar, förstår och ger mening till det de är med om. Studien befinner sig inom forskningsfältet levd religion. Här ligger tonvikten på hur religion och andlighet praktiseras, upplevs och uttrycks av vanliga människor, snarare än officiella företrädare. Meredith McGuires forskning om levd religion samt Nancy Ammermans forskning kring vardagsreligiositet och andliga landskap har fungerat som teoretisk resurs. Inom fältet levd religion har jag särskilt fokuserat på tre dimensioner: relationer, religiös praktik och berättelser. Efter transkribering och kodning av fältanteckningar samt intervjuer med åtta retreatdeltagare, framträdde sju teman som strukturerar resultatredovisningen i uppsatsen. Temana rubriceras som: Gudsrelation, inre bilder och drömmar, Att uthärda svårigheter och få nytt hopp, Gemenskap och egentid, Ansvar och handling, Blandning av religiösa traditioner, Rum, symboler och artefakter samt Vila i Gud. Eftersom en stor del av empirin bygger på respondenters berättelser görs också en narrativ analys för att förstå livsberättelsens dramaturgi i vår samtid. I konklusionen konstateras att relationer, både till andra människor och Gud, var centrala för respondenternas meningsskapande. Möten med andra troende nyckelpersoner var avgörande när retreatdeltagarna återgav milstolpar i sina livsberättelser. Relationen till den kristna treenige guden framträder som levande och vänskaplig, det är en gud som man både kan anförtro sig till och ifrågasätta. Endagsretreater är en kyrklig praktik som visade sig kunna bidra till en transformativ process när det gäller människors meningsskapande och livstolkning.

Levd religion är ett växande forskningsområde inom religionsforskningen. Det svenska skolsystemet ska bygga på forskning och därför bör det enbart vara en tidsfråga innan lärare kommer bli ombedda att inkludera och undervisa elever i levd religion. Syftet med studien är, genom att utföra en bildanalys, att undersöka användandet av bilder i moderna religionsläroböcker för högstadiet, samt utifrån resultatet diskutera ifall man via lärobokens bilder som befintligt redskap kan inkludera levd religion i undervisningen samt visa på skillnader i ortodoxi och ortopraxi. Bildanalysen tog sin bas i systemteori och didaktisk potential för att undersöka två olika traditioner, en baserad ur ortodoxi och en ur ortopraxi. Resultatet visade att bildanvändningen i de undersökta läroböckerna ger exempel på religiositet baserad ur både ortodoxi och ortopraxi och att dimensioner av levd religion kunde ses i tre fjärdedelar av de analyserade bilderna. Studien hjälper aktiva och blivande lärare med att förklara levd religion och ger exempel på hur man kan introducera det i undervisningen genom bilder och därigenom höja elevernas förståelse och kunskap kring religion och religiositet. / Lived religion is a growing field of research within the study of religion. The Swedish educational system is based on scientific research and therefore it should only be a matter of time before Swedish teachers are going to be asked to include and teach pupils about lived religion. The aim of the study is, by the means of conducting an image analysis, to investigate the usage of images in modern religion textbooks aimed at secondary school, and from this result discuss if it is possible by using the images of the textbook as an existing tool to include lived religion in the education of today, as well as illustrate differences between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. The image analysis was based on systems theory and didactic potential to analyse two different traditions, one based in orthodoxy and one in orthopraxy. The result showed that the use of images in the investigated textbooks gave examples of both orthodox and orthopractic religiosity and that dimensions of lived religion could be seen in three fourths of the images analysed. The study helps practicing and studying teachers by explaining lived religion and giving examples on to how introduce it in their teaching by using images and thereby increase the pupils’ religious understanding of religion and religiosity.

À la fin de l’année 1989, la Roumanie entamait son chemin vers la démocratie. Depuis, le pays a connu de nombreux changements dont une « revitalisation religieuse ». L’attrait pour la religion en Roumanie a suscité l’intérêt des chercheurs qui ont tenté de rendre compte de comportements qu’ils jugeaient contraires aux thèses des théories de la sécularisation et de la modernisation. Ma thèse part d’une critique de ces études qui, concentrées sur ces théories, omettent trop souvent l’action des individus dans la vie de tous les jours. Dans la présente recherche, j’utilise l’approche de la religion vécue pour me pencher sur des individus et leur manière de comprendre, d’exprimer, de pratiquer et d’expérimenter la religion au jour le jour. D’une manière réflexive, ma thèse examine la religion vécue dans la Roumanie postcommuniste à partir de pèlerinages réalisés durant le printemps et l’automne 2012 dans des monastères réputés pour leurs miracles, leurs confesseurs charismatiques ou leurs reliques. En raison de leur présence nombreuse dans les pèlerinages, les femmes se sont imposées comme les artisanes de la religion vécue en Roumanie. Elles sont au centre de ma thèse. En observant leurs croyances et leurs pratiques — et sans omettre la religion vécue des « porteurs de la religion officielle » —, j’explore des thèmes qui constituent autant de facettes de la religion vécue : le sort, le charisme, la matérialité et les reliques. Ma thèse propose deux contributions à la recherche. 1) L’étude de la pratique de la religion des pèlerines nous renseigne sur la manière dont la religion est comprise et pratiquée dans un contexte orthodoxe. Elle laisse également entrevoir les conséquences de cette pratique dans la Roumanie postcommuniste : en effet, la religion vécue s’avère un véhicule de valeurs qui s’opposent au discours démocratique officiel. 2) L’étude propose une contribution théorique et méthodologique à l’approche de la religion vécue. Le matériau empirique sur lequel elle repose indique que la religion vécue prend racine dans l’Église pour ensuite circuler entre les femmes et les représentants de l’institution. Dans ce mouvement de va-et-vient, la religion vécue appartient aux pèlerines, mais aussi aux « porteurs de la religion officielle ». / At the end of 1989, Romania embarked on a path towards democracy. From that moment on, the country has witnessed numerous changes, including a “religious revitalization.” The attraction of religion in post-communist Romania has sparked researchers’ interest; they have tried to explain what they judge contrary to theories of secularization and modernization. My thesis starts with a critique of these studies, which have too often neglected everyday actions of individuals. In the present study, I use a lived religion approach to understand the ways in which individuals understand, express, practice and experiment religion in their daily lives. In a reflexive manner, my thesis examines lived religion in post-communist Romania; it draws on fieldwork undertaken during pilgrimages in the spring and autumn of 2012 in monasteries known for their miracles, their charismatic confessors, or their relics. Because of their predominance during pilgrimages, women stand out as the main actors of lived religion in Romania. They are at the center of my thesis. Observing their beliefs and practices—without omitting the lived religion of the “carriers of official religion”—I set out to explore themes that represent as many facets of lived religion: fate, charisma, materiality, and relics. My thesis offers two research contributions to the sociology of religion. 1) The study of the pilgrim’s religious practice instructs us on the manner in which religion is understood and practiced in an Orthodox context. It also gives insight into the consequences of this practice in post-communist Romania: as it turns out, lived religion is a vehicle for values diverging from the official democratic discourse. 2) The study provides a theoretical and methodological contribution to the lived religion approach. Its empirical material indicates that lived religion stems from the Orthodox Church before circulating between women and church representatives. In this to-and-fro movement lived religion pertains to the pilgrims as well as to the “carriers of official religion.”

No description available.