{"id":5888,"date":"2013-07-24T20:17:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T02:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5888"},"modified":"2013-07-24T20:17:09","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T02:17:09","slug":"a-pagan-flavored-study-of-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5888","title":{"rendered":"A Pagan-Flavored Study of Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Graham Harvey<\/a>, one of founders of contemporary Pagan studies, has a new book out, Food, Sex and Strangers<\/em><\/a>, which “offers alternative ways of thinking about what religion involves and how we might better understand it. Drawing on studies of contemporary religions, especially among indigenous peoples, the book argues that religion serves to maintain and enhance human relationships in and with the larger-than-human world. Fundamentally, religion can be better understood through the ways we negotiate our lives than in affirmations of belief \u2013 and it is best seen when people engage in intimate acts with themselves and others.”<\/p>\n

Like Michael York’s definition of Paganism that I offered earlier<\/a>, Harvey’s perspective on religion is heavy on relationship. <\/em>Not surprising for someone who has also helped to define “the New Animism<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Doug Ezzy<\/a>, an Australian scholar of Paganism, writes in his cover blurb, “Harvey’s ideas about religion are some of the most important and ground-breaking of our time. He demonstrates that religion is not about belief but about practices.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graham Harvey, one of founders of contemporary Pagan studies, has a new book out, Food, Sex and Strangers, which “offers alternative ways of thinking about what religion involves and how we might better understand it. Drawing on studies of contemporary religions, especially among indigenous peoples, the book argues that religion serves to maintain and enhance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68,4],"class_list":["post-5888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animism","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1wY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":163,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=163","url_meta":{"origin":5888,"position":0},"title":"Pagan Studies marches on The\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan Studies marches on The book series on Pagan Studies that I co-edit with Wendy Griffin has now grown to four titles. If all goes well--if the publisher accepts my ms.--then two books should be ready in time for the American Academy of Religion-Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13844,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13844","url_meta":{"origin":5888,"position":1},"title":"I Will Be Interviewed for the Cherry Hill Series. Meanwhile, Check Out These!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Register here for the live cast I am not a Pagan teacher, Witchcraft influencer, or anything like that. Usually i see myself as the person approaching a panelist at an American Academy of Religion session, saying, \"Would you consider turning your paper into an article for The Pomegranate?\" Kind of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"acade\"","block_context":{"text":"acade","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=acade"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/CSC-Seminary.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/CSC-Seminary.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/CSC-Seminary.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/CSC-Seminary.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/CSC-Seminary.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7724,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7724","url_meta":{"origin":5888,"position":2},"title":"Core Books in Pagan Studies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently completed an article on contempoary Paganism for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, so when it appears, I can at least say that I have been published by Oxford UP. Yay me. But is there still a market for academic encyclopedias in this day when undergrads must be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"magical religion","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/magical-religion.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7494,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7494","url_meta":{"origin":5888,"position":3},"title":"New Issue of The Pomegranate Published","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The newest issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, has been published online and is at the printer. Book reviews may be downloaded free. There is a charge for longer articles \u2014 or request them (after an interval) from your library's interlibrary loan service. Table of Contents:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pom cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Pom-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":676,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=676","url_meta":{"origin":5888,"position":4},"title":"Let's drop 'Neopagan'Back in the\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's drop 'Neopagan'Back in the 1970s, when Tim (now Oberon) Zell was editing Green Egg (America's leading Pagan zine at the time), \"Neopagan\" or \"Neo-Pagan\" was a cutting-edge term for a collection of religious movements from Wicca to Egyptian Reconstructionism.More recently, the British Pagan scholar Graham Harvey has suggested dropping\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2013,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2013","url_meta":{"origin":5888,"position":5},"title":"New Co-Chairs Chosen for AAR Pagan Studies Group","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"One outcome of the recent annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion is that the two co-chairs of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group, Michael York and Wendy Griffin, came to the end of their terms. Stepping into those positions are Jone Salomonsen (University of Oslo) and me. You don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"scholarship\"","block_context":{"text":"scholarship","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=scholarship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5888"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5892,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888\/revisions\/5892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}