Occasional Religious Practice

Abstract Occasional religious practice is a way of relating to religion that is characterized by participation in religious practices occasionally rather than routinely, most often in connection with certain types of occasions, including holidays, life transitions, and times of crisis. Anchored in three years of ethnographic research in the Anglican tradition in Toronto, this interdisciplinary study employs qualitative theological methods to develop the concept of occasional religious practice. Sociologically, occasional religious practice is a consistent yet underdeveloped theme in research on religious change in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Drawing out this common thread reveals the diversity of religious and nonreligious identities claimed by those who participate occasionally in Christian worship and allows for the identification of different types of occasional practitioners based on motivations for participation. Within the field of ritual studies, occasional practice is defined as selective participation in a ritual system that some practice routinely. In contemporary contexts, multiple ritual systems overlap and participants intuitively negotiate the strategic selection of certain practices. Theologically, this research challenges the assumption that liturgical participants are fully believing, actively practicing, morally compliant, and formally affiliated with a tradition. It attends to the lived theology of occasional practitioners on the liturgical and theological margins. Privileging the perspectives of occasional practitioners centers certain aspects of worship, including materiality, emotion, and relationship, although they also speak of God, tradition, and ethics. The book values the very ordinary experience of occasional religious practice and invites dialogue among people who relate to religion in different ways.