Introduction

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. The introduction provides an overview of the argument of the book which introduces and develops the concept of occasional religious practice in dialogue with sociological literature, explores occasional religious practice as selective participation in ritual systems, and makes a case for doing theology with occasional religious practitioners. A short summary of case selection and method describes how the argument is anchored in three years of ethnographic research in the Anglican tradition in Toronto, Canada, including sixty-one interviews and participant observation of eighty liturgies. The book values the very ordinary experience of occasional religious practice and invites dialogue among people who relate to religion in different ways.