Approaching Druidry as an emerging religious movement that offers an alternative to the mainstream materialist, consumerist culture of the United States, Kimberly Kirner analyses her own life as a Druid through the lens of her profession as a cultural anthropologist.
Interweaving lively stories of her life as a Druid with accessible analytical essays drawing from an unusual array of literature from the anthropology of religion, the anthropology of consciousness, organizational anthropology, cognitive anthropology, and ethnoecology, she leads the reader into an experiential and conceptual understanding of Druidry as a way of life and as a contemporary Western new religious movement that challenges Christo-centric definitions of religion.
Reflecting on three domains of the Druidic life, the author describes the Druidic worldview (place, time, and the body), community (relational spirituality), and vocation (ethics and action). These descriptions are punctuated with reflective essays that question the boundaries and nature of religion as it is generally understood in the Western world by examining how Druidry might be understood using concepts more appropriate to Druids’ conceptualizations of themselves.
By:
Kimberly Kirner (California State University Northridge USA)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350264120
ISBN 10: 1350264121
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 07 March 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: The Why, What, and How of this Book The First Triad – All as Sacred: Place, Time, and the Body 1.Claimed by Place 2.Echoes through Time 3.Becoming a Body 4.The First Spiral: Recognizing a Participatory World The Second Triad – All as Conscious: Relational Spirituality 5.A Congregation of Nature Spirits 6.A Community of Ancestors 7.A Covenant with the Shining Ones 8.The Second Spiral: An Ecocentric Community The Third Triad – All as Worthy: Living Druidry 9.The Foundation of Right Action: Knowledge 10.The Foundation for Peace: Justice 11.The Foundation for Divine Connection: Loving Others 12.The Third Spiral: The Druid in the World Bibliography Index
Kimberly Kirner is Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Northridge, USA.
