Approaching Religion Vol. 12/3: “Rituals and Ritualization”

The new issue of Approaching Religion is dedicated to Terhi Utriainen, Professor of the Study of Religions at the University of Helsinki and published on the 7 November 2022, Terhi’s sixtieth birthday. The issue has been compiled by guest editors Helena Kupari, lecturer at the School of Theology, University of Finland, and Maija Butters, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. It contains reflections and research articles written by Terhi’s colleagues in Finland, the UK and the Netherlands addressing the theme of rituals and ritualization.

The issue opens with an article by Linda Woodhead, F. D. Maurice Professor in Moral and Social Theology, King’s College, London. Based on an interview with Terhi, it takes the form of a dialogue between two leading scholars who share many research interests and value each other’s work. Docent and senior lecturer Heikki Pesonen, University of Helsinki, introduces Roy Rappaport’s ritual theory and applies it to conceptualize the relationship between religion, rituals and ecological concerns. Timo Kallinen, Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Eastern Finland, investigates contemporary conflicts over the traditional Ghanaian ritual of libation. Senior lecturer Alexandra Bergholm, University of Helsinki, presents an Old Irish text from the mid-eighth century by the Irish monk Blathmac son of Cú Brettan, focusing on its place within a ritual practice of prayer. Helena Kupari’s article is also concerned with prayer practices, this time among contemporary Finns who have joined the Orthodox Church of Finland as adults. Post-doctoral researcher and university teacher Jere Kyyrö and docent Teemu T. Mantsinen from the University of Turku also discuss contemporary Orthodox Christian ritual. They apply Catharine Bell’s concept of ritualisation to analyse a cluster of events that has taken place annually (pre-Covid) in Finnish North Karelia. The issue ends with an article by Anne-Marie Korte, Professor of Religion and Gender at Utrecht University. Her text dives into the colourful world of drag culture, describing performances by the artist Drag Sethlas and analysing them from the point of view of gender and religious studies.

Approaching Religion is published by the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture, it is fully open access and accessed at: https://journal.fi/ar