Transforming Post-Catholic Ireland: Religious Practice in Late Modernity - Hardcover

Ganiel, Gladys

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198745788 ISBN 13: 9780198745785

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Transforming Post-Catholic Ireland is the first major book to explore the dynamic religious landscape of contemporary Ireland, north and south, and to analyze the island's religious transition. It confirms that the Catholic Church's long-standing "monopoly" has well and truly disintegrated, replaced by a mixed, post-Catholic religious "market" featuring new and growing expressions of Protestantism, as well as other religions. It describes how people of faith are developing "extra-institutional" expressions of religion, keeping their faith alive outside or in addition to the institutional Catholic Church.

Drawing on island-wide surveys of clergy and laypeople, as well as more than 100 interviews, Gladys Ganiel describes how people of faith are engaging with key issues such as increased diversity, reconciliation to overcome the island's sectarian past, and ecumenism. Ganiel argues that extra-institutional religion is especially well-suited to address these and other issues due to its freedom and flexibility when compared to traditional religious institutions. She explains how those who practice extra-institutional religion have experienced personal transformation, and analyses the extent that they have contributed to wider religious, social, and political change. On an island where religion has caused much pain, from clerical sexual abuse scandals, to sectarian violence, to a frosty reception for some immigrants, those who practice their faith outside traditional religious institutions may hold the key to transforming post-Catholic Ireland into a more reconciled society.

About this title

About the Author

Gladys Ganiel is Research Fellow in the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at Queen's University Belfast. She is author of The Deconstructed Church: Understanding Emerging Christianity (with Gerardo Marti), Evangelical Journeys: Choice and Change in a Northern Irish Religious Subculture (with Claire Mitchell), and Evangelicalism and Conflict in Northern Ireland.

Review

"In this insightful and intelligent book, Gladys Ganiel suggests that we think of Ireland as post-Catholic. In doing so, she does not argue that there is nothing left of the Catholic Church or Catholicism in Ireland, but rather that the type of legalistic, authoritarian institutional religion that was dominant up until the 1970s has almost disappeared However, in Ganiel's terms, as well as these traditional types, there are also new alternative and creative Catholics. All that was solid about the Catholic Church has not melted into air but has fragmented into vibrant, dynamic new forms. It is these new forms of what she calls extrainstitutional religion that she sets out to describe and analyse."--Tom Inglis, Journal of Contemporary Religion

"Transforming Post-Catholic Ireland should have wide appeal for not only scholars of religion in Ireland and Europe, but in keeping with her commitment to action research, for journalists, religious leaders and communities, and political and social sector leaders as well. It is action research at its best, exposing areas deeply in need of evaluation and reform while highlighting areas of strength to draw upon for social transformation."--Reading Religion

"Transforming Post-Catholic Ireland should have wide appeal for not only scholars of religion in Ireland and Europe, but in keeping with her commitment to action research, for journalists, religious leaders and communities, and political and social sector leaders as well. It is action research at its best, exposing areas deeply in need of evaluation and reform while highlighting areas of strength to draw upon for social transformation." --Reading Religion

"Some will rejoice in the fall from grace of one of Ireland's traditionally most revered institutions, others will regret it, but wherever one stands on the issue, what this book shows clearly is that Catholicism has not gone away but has mutated into something different that could yet prove to be transformative and lasting." --The Irish Times

"[It] represents a key contribution to our understanding of religious change and development. What I found most appealing about this book is the narrative skill, imagination, and keen observation of the author. And so this book will appeal not just to social scientists-sociologists of religion primarily-but to non-specialists and non-academics as well... this is a superb book for students of religion." --Irish Theological Quarterly

'Ganiel's book makes a novel contribution to the study of religion by presenting new understandings of the dynamics of religious change and the different forms of extra-institutional religion. . . . The book will be of a significant interest to students and scholars in theology, religious studies, sociology and anthropology of religion, and other disciplines that study religious changes. In addition, it will also be of appreciable use to many practitioners, including religious leaders and laypeople.' --Religion and Theology

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0198745788
• ISBN 13: 9780198745785
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 284