Ritual, Personhood and the New Animism

Studies in contemporary religion employing the theoretical framework developed by the British scholar of religion, Graham Harvey.

Graham Harvey’s work — from his early publications on British Pagans, his pioneering work on New Animism to most recently the everyday relational model of religion presented in Food, Sex and Strangers — has had an impact on fields as diverse as environmentalism, ritual, indigenous religion, folklore, and beyond academia. Yet there is a clear through-line, as this volume suggests, a concern with personhood, communication and community which bridges the lived religion approach with emerging network- and rhizome-based theoretical models. Harvey has also impacted the field through the growing network of former students and other early career students who have benefited from his support, directly or through the Open University or the British Association for the Study of Religion, and the many scholars with whom he has produced collaborative works. The contributors of this volume are drawn from these networks, to consider and celebrate Graham’s contributions to the contemporary study of religion.