Women and Religion in Britain Today: Rites and Rituals
Yvonne Bennett (Ed.)
by Yvonne Bennett (Canterbury Christ Church University), Amanda Norman (University of Winchester), Sharon Jagger (York St John University), Nicole Holt (Canterbury Christ Church University), Miles Greenford , Pip Wylde , Clair James (University of Winchester), Emily-Louise Wain
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This is an inclusive and sensitive volume with a creative spirit. It offers bottom-up, rich analyses of lived experiences in ways that are reflective and intellectually rooted. The book has clear relevance to scholarly discourse on religion and gender within the UK and beyond.
Alex D. J. Fry
Bournemouth University
Author of 'Gender Inequality in the Ordained Ministry of the Church of England'
This volume offers an interdisciplinary exploration of rituals and rites through analytical, feminist, sociological and philosophical lenses. The authors invite readers to reflect on their own beliefs and biases, positioning self-awareness as central to understanding religious and secular ritualistic experiences. By blending academic analysis with personal reflection, the book brings together the intellectual and the spiritual, showing how rituals, both sacred and secular, shape identity, meaning, and belonging.
What makes this work compelling is its emphasis on lived experience. Rituals are examined not as abstract practices but as transformative acts that connect individuals to their communities and nature. Women’s experiences are placed at the centre and the suggestion is that spirituality can serve as empowerment, resistance, and renewal. Through its interdisciplinary approach drawing from feminism, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy, the book highlights how personal spirituality and cultural context intertwine.
The authors’ concluding reflections bring the themes full circle, reminding readers that ritual is universal, transcending boundaries of belief and tradition. This is a cohesive, reflective, and deeply human study that invites readers to engage not only with the subject matter but also with their own inner worlds.
A nuanced and insightful work that expands our understanding of spirituality in precarious times.
Ayşe Çirçir
Erzurum Technical University, Turkey
This book is the second volume edited by Yvonne Bennett examining the lived religious lives of women in 21st-century Britain. The authors continue to explore contemporary women’s spirituality by looking at the way women use rituals and rites within their lives. Coming from different academic fields, the contributors bring together an interdisciplinary collection of voices on the topic of rituals and ritualistic behaviours. The chapters are woven together to shine a heterogeneous light on religion in the twenty-first century and the impact it has on women in Britain today. The volume also examines the editors’ own spirituality alongside that of the participants, offering a hybrid academic-practitioner viewpoint on ritual.
The chapters begin and end with a philosophical examination of ritual and the manner in which ritualistic behaviours are incorporated into human experience. This book takes the reader on a journey from the cradle to the grave and from medieval history to the present day.
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Christina Stead
Independent Researcher
Introduction
Yvonne Bennett
Independent Social Researcher
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1
Genesis of a Complex Reflective Technite: Rituals for Women
Miles Greenford
Independent Scholar
Nicole Holt
Canterbury Christ Church University
Chapter 2
Feminist Meaning-Making: An Exploration of the Rituals of Goddess-Worshipping Women
Sharon Jagger
York St John University
Chapter 3
Harmony with Nature: Women Crafting Rituals within Paganism
Pip Wylde
Ritual Facilitator, Somatic Coach and Witch
Chapter 4
Matrescence: Public and Private Spiritual Perspectives of New Mothers’ Rites and Rituals within Twenty-First-Century Britain
Amanda Norman
University of Winchester
Clair James
University of Winchester
Chapter 5
Posthumous Personhood: The Postmortem Identities of a Medieval Queen
Emily-Louise Wain
Independent Researcher
Chapter 6
Funerals: A Last British Taboo?
Yvonne Bennett
Independent Social Researcher
Reflection: Our Use of Rituals
List of Contributors
Index
Yvonne Bennett obtained a BA and MA through the Open University. On leaving school, she trained as a nurse and, after having children, retrained as a nursery schoolteacher. She has completed a PhD at Canterbury Christ Church University. Her research area of interest is conservative Presbyterianism in the Gàidhealtachd (Highlands and Islands) of Scotland. In 2021, Bennett published a book that examines the ways in which churches in Britain help the vulnerable in their communities. The book 'The Church Who Needs It? We Do!' examines the difficulties a group of South London women experience with Universal Credit and life under lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic. In 2022, she edited a book, 'Women and Religion in Britain Today: Belonging' with Vernon Press. In 2024, she co-authored a book published by Vernon Press, 'Stories from the Front Line: The People Behind the NHS Headlines'. This book examined the ways in which NHS Scotland, and in particular its flagship hospital, was letting down the elderly by exposing them to iatrogenic harm.
narrative, social policy, elderly
See also
Bibliographic Information
Book Title
Women and Religion in Britain Today: Rites and Rituals
ISBN
979-8-8819-0382-4
Edition
1st
Number of pages
178
Physical size
236mm x 160mm
