Occasions of Faith: An Anthropology of Irish Catholics

Devotional "occasions", or experiences by Irish Catholics form the crux of this powerful, first book-length anthropological study of Irish Catholicism. Questions central to the study of religion inform Occasions of Faith: What is religion and how do "official" and "popular" religion differ? What is the relation between power and meaning? What are the roles of religious and political "regimes" in the social construction of religion? In exploring these questions, the book draws on two major theoretical traditions in the anthropological study of religion: the tradition of Geertz, Douglas, and Turner and that of Marx, Foucault, and Asad. Even the powerful religious regime Taylor finds in Irish Catholicism must leave "creative space" for what he calls a "religious imagination." Basic fears and needs propel the people of southwest Donegal - and all of us, Taylor argues - to respond creatively to strong personal religious experiences and to invent forms to express them.