Enjoying Religion: Pleasure and Fun in Established and New Religious Movements

“Enjoying religion” seems to be a contradiction because religion is generally perceived as a serious or even suppressive phenomenon. This volume is the first to study the increase of enjoying religion systematically by presenting eleven new case studies, occurring on four continents. The volume concludes that in our late modern secular societies the enjoyment of religion or of its loose elements is growing. In particular when scholars concentrate on “lived religion” of ordinary people, the cheerful experiences appear to prevail. Many people use pleasant (elements of) religion to add meaning to their lives, to find spiritual fulfillment or a way to salvation, and to experience belonging to a larger unity. At the same time, diverse cultural dynamics of late modern society such as popular culture, commercialization, re-enchantment, and feminization influence this trend of enjoying religion. In spite of secularization, playing with religion appears to be attractive.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Investigations in Enjoying Religion Frans Jespers Part I Enjoying Established Religions 1. Enjoying Islam: Trajectories of Star Performers in the Egyptian Piety Movement Karin van Nieuwkerk 2. Fun and Faith in the Ganges: The Bodily and Spiritual Pleasures of River Bathing Catrien Notermans 3. Fun-damentalism: “As If” Experiences at a Creationist Theme Park James S. Bielo 4. Tantra: Ecstatic Enjoyment Way beyond Boundaries Paul van der Velde Part II Enjoying Transformed Religion 5. Merry Christmas! Religion in Norway Ingvild Sælid Gilhus and Lisbeth Mikaelsson 6. “Our Play Pleases the Man, the Spirits of the Desert, and Whatever”: Enjoying Religion at Burning Man François Gauthier 7. Happinez, Zen, and Wealth Frans Jespers 8. Celebrating With the Church of the SubGenius: X-Day Rituals of Bad Taste, Burning “Bob,” and the End of the World (Not) Carole M. Cusack 9. Beyond Morality. On Religion in Aesthetic Form Jean-Pierre Wils

About the Author :
Frans Jespers is associate professor of comparative religion at Radboud University, Nijmegen. Karin van Nieuwkerk is professor of Islam studies at Radboud University, Nijmegen. Paul van der Velde is professor of Asian religions at Radboud University, Nijmegen.

Review :
The editors of Enjoying Religion sought material from a wide range of traditions, methodologies, and geographies, including case studies in which religion provides pleasure, utilizes fun, and is enjoyed. . . . Overall this book is a valuable addition to the movement toward bodily religion and a robust beginning for an important conversation. . . Unearthing the fun and pleasure from a subject that denies these qualities is serious work and this volume provides a solid foundation for this work to begin. It’s delightful to find a scholarly book that puts the fun back into religion. With its coverage of different religious traditions, and many perspectives, this fascinating collection enables the reader to draw interesting broader conclusions about how and why some forms of religion find it easier to embrace joy and sensuality than others. Now that emotions in general are increasingly acknowledged as important for religious studies, this book pinpoints enjoyment in particular as a worthwhile flow of devotees’ pleasure and as a theoretical topic worthy of scholarly analysis. A mixture of academic disciplines combines here to cover traditional and niche-novelty forms of meaning-making events to stimulate future studies of human pleasure in ritual play. Religion is sometimes associated with the ludic, the liminal, and the playful, but this marvelous volume explores the much-less discussed theme of enjoyment. In some very vivid chapters, the contributors take us across the world and across religions. They greatly extend our analytical vocabulary by demonstrating the numerous ways in which we need to take the enjoyment of religion much more seriously.