Current debates: new religion(s) in Ireland (original) (raw)
Related papers
Editors' introduction: Understanding new religion in Ireland
2011
In recent decades, the religious landscape of the island of Ireland has transformed dramatically. In the Republic, the Catholic church, dominant since the late nineteenth century, has faced a steady decline in levels of practice and a dramatic cultural crisis. Similar processes, albeit less dramatic, are taking place north of the border and in the established Protestant churches, while Irish Judaism is also in decline.
Ireland’s new religious movements
2011
"Until recently, Irish religion has been seen as defined by Catholic power in the South and sectarianism in the North. In recent years, however, both have been shaken by widespread changes in religious practice and belief, the rise of new religious movements, the revival of magical-devotionalism, the arrival of migrant religion and the spread of New Age and alternative spirituality. This book is the first to bring together researchers exploring all these areas in a wide-ranging overview of new religion in Ireland. Chapters explore the role of feminism, Ireland as global ‘Celtic’ homeland, the growth of Islam, understanding the New Age, evangelicals in the Republic, alternative healing, Irish interest in Buddhism, channelled teachings and religious visions."
Ireland's New Religious Movements (2011)
Until recently, Irish religion has been seen as defined by Catholic power in the South and sectarianism in the North. In recent years, however, both have been shaken by widespread changes in religious practice and belief, the rise of new religious movements, the revival of magical-devotionalism, the arrival of migrant religion and the spread of New Age and alternative spirituality. This book is the first to bring together researchers exploring all these areas in a wide-ranging overview of new religion in Ireland. Chapters explore the role of feminism, Ireland as global ‘Celtic’ homeland, the growth of Islam, understanding the New Age, evangelicals in the Republic, alternative healing, Irish interest in Buddhism, channelled teachings and religious visions. This book will be an indispensable handbook for professionals in many fields seeking to understand Ireland’s increasingly diverse and multicultural religious landscape, as well as for students of religion, sociology, psychology, anthropology and Irish Studies. Giving an overview of the shape of new religion in Ireland today and models of the best work in the field, it is likely to remain a standard text for many years to come.
Situating New Religious Movements in Contemporary Ireland
The Study of Religions in Ireland, 2022
In western societies, modernisation and personal experience of the religious belong to the domain of the secular making it difficult to find answers about life as conceptualised in traditional religions. New Religious Movements (NRM) seem to fill this gap by providing their own belief system, by cultivating a sense of community and spirituality, and by providing a sanctuary in alienating modern world. The proliferation of NRMs in Ireland, sometimes described as ‘New Age Movement’, was seen as largely overlooked area of religious landscape due to the prevalence of the Catholic Church and its powerful reach into all spheres in society. While varieties of religious and pagan groups have existed in Ireland for centuries, 1960s and 1970s mark a turning point in the private and public life of Irish society in terms of proliferation, adoption, and diversification of alternative spiritualities. While increase in numbers of alternative religious groups is often linked to secularisation of society, in Ireland a presence of NRMs attests more to pluralisation of world views rather than secularisation. For most of the population in Ireland, some form of religion or spirituality fulfils deeply embedded needs for social belonging and emotional bonding.
2012
As an early-career scholar I find myself still amazed at the amount of scholarship missing from the annals of the academy. I remember well my undergraduate days thinking sadly that all that was interesting in the world had already been studied. How wrong I was! It was largely through the study of new religious phenomena that I learned that, in fact, the academy barely managed to scrape the surface of the human experience, and that, contrary to popular belief, religions are always new, in a Weberian sense.
The Oxford Handbook of Religion in Modern Ireland (pp.489-504), 2024
The Oxford Handbook of Religion in Modern Ireland provides in-depth analysis of the relationships between religion, society, politics, and everyday life on the island of Ireland from 1800 to the twenty-first century. Taking a chronological and all-island approach, it explores the complex and changing role of religion both before and after partition of the island. It addresses long-standing historical and political debates about religion, identity, and politics, including religion’s contributions to division and violence on the island. It also offers perspectives on the relationship of religion with education, the media, law, gender and sexuality, science, literature, and memory; considers how everyday religious practices have intersected with the institutional structures of Catholicism and Protestantism; and analyses the island’s increasing religious diversity, including the rise of those with ‘no religion’. Written by leading scholars in the field and emerging researchers with new perspectives, the Handbook is authoritative and up to date, offering a wide-ranging and comprehensive analysis of the enduring significance of religion on the island.
Transforming Post-Catholic Ireland Religious Practice in Late Modernity
Transforming Post-Catholic Ireland is the first major book to explore the dynamic religious landscape of contemporary Ireland, north and south, and to analyse the island's religious transition. It confirms that the Catholic Church's long-standing 'monopoly' has well and truly disintegrated, replaced by a mixed, post-Catholic religious 'market' featuring new and growing expressions of Protestantism, as well as other religions. It describes how people of faith are developing 'extra-institutional' expressions of religion, keeping their faith alive outside or in addition to the institutional Catholic Church. Drawing on island-wide surveys of clergy and laypeople, as well as more than 100 interviews, Gladys Ganiel describes how people of faith are engaging with key issues such as increased diversity, reconciliation to overcome the island's sectarian past, and ecumenism. Ganiel argues that extra-institutional religion is especially well-suited to address these and other issues due to its freedom and flexibility when compared to traditional religious institutions. She explains how those who practice extra-institutional religion have experienced personal transformation, and analyses the extent that they have contributed to wider religious, social, and political change. On an island where religion has caused much pain, from clerical sexual abuse scandals, to sectarian violence, to a frosty reception for some immigrants, those who practice their faith outside traditional religious institutions may hold the key to transforming post-Catholic Ireland into a more reconciled society.