Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life

Marion Bowman, Open University, and Ülo Valk, University of Tartu, Estonia

• 1. Introduction: Vernacular Religion, Generic Expressions and the Dynamics of Belief Part I: Belief as Practice 2. Everyday, Fast and Feast: Household Work and the Production of Time in Pre-Modern Russian Orthodox Karelia, Marja-Liisa Keinanen 3. How to Make a Shrine with Your Own Hands: Local Holy Places and Vernacular Religion in Russia, Alexander Panchenko 4. "I make my saints work ...": A Hungarian Holy Healer's Identity Reflected in Autobiographical Stories and Folk Narratives, Judit Kis-Halas 5. Chronic Illness and the Negotiation of Vernacular Religious Belief, Anne Rowbottom Part II: Traditions of Narrated Belief 6. Autobiographical and Interpretative Dynamics in the Oral Repertoire of a Vepsian Woman, Madis Arukask and Taisto-Kalevi Raudalainen 7. Hidden Messages: Dream Narratives about the Dead as Indirect Communication, Agnes Hesz 8. Religious Legend as a Shaper of Identity: St. Xenia in the Mental Universe of a Setu Woman, Merili Metsvahi Part III: Relationships between Humans and Others 9. Things Act: Casual Indigenous Statements about the Performance of Object-Persons, Graham Harvey 10. Haunted Houses and Haunting Girls: Life and Death in Contemporary Argentinian Folk Narrative, Maria Ines Palleiro 11. Angels in Norway: Religious Border-Crossers and Border-Markers, Ingvild Salid Gilhus 12. "We, too, have seen a great miracle": Conversations and Narratives on the Supernatural among Hungarian-Speaking Catholics in a Romanian Village, Eva Pocs Part IV: Creation and Maintenance of Community and Identity 13. Komi Hunter Narratives, Art Leete and Vladimir Lipin 14. Stories of Santiago Pilgrims: Tradition Through Creativity, Tiina Sepp 15. Restoring/Restorying Arthur and Bridget: Vernacular Religion and Contemporary Spirituality in Glastonbury, Marion Bowman Part V: Theoretical Reflections and Manifestations of the Vernacular 16. Belief as Generic Practice and Vernacular Theory in Contemporary Estonia, Ulo Valk 17. Some Epistemic Problems with a Vernacular Worldview, Seppo Knuuttila Afterword: Manifestations of the Religious Vernacular: Ambiguity, Power and Creativity, Leonard Norman Primiano

'A stimulating read, establishing the possibilities of attention to the vernacular and everyday in religion and, by extension, to all of culture.' - Anthropology Review Database 'A richly detailed and thought-provoking book that will be of great value to belief and legend scholars, as well as to scholars in other fields' - Journal of Folklore Research