Dillon, Michele M.

English

University of New Hampshire

University of New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository
Sociology Scholarship Sociology
11-1-2009
Review of M. McGuire, Lived Religion
Michele M. Dillon
University of New Hampshire, Durham, Michele.Dillon@unh.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/soc_facpub
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been
accepted for inclusion in Sociology Scholarship by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more
information, please contact nicole.hentz@unh.edu.
Recommended Citation
American Journal of Sociology. 2009. Review of M. McGuire, Lived Religion (Oxford University Press, 2008).
American Journal of Sociology
924
They will discover how Appalachian state legislatures have attempted to
drive snake handling underground.
In many ways, the proper title of this book should be “them that criticize
them that believe.” If Hood and Williamson had managed to forget the
critics and shake off their instinctive defensiveness, they could have been
considerably more successful in advancing our understanding of the small
number of people intent on taking very seriously one specific biblical
passage.
Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. By Meredith
McGuire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. ix290. $19.95
(paper).
Michele Dillon
University of New Hampshire
Meredith McGuire’s Lived Religion richly endows an expanding academic
literature highlighting the relevance of religious-spiritual practices that
are typically excluded from the received view of what counts as religion
and spirituality. For historians, this has meant engagement in research
that revises standard narratives of, for example, early colonial religion
and reassessing Puritan beliefs and habits. For sociologists, it generally
entails making visible the myriad ways in which religion exists outside
the boundaries and categories of orthodoxy established by religious in-
stitutions and translated by sociologists into standardized, quantitative
measures of belief and practice. Instead, McGuire and other scholars argue
for a focus on individuals and how they variously inject spiritual meanings
and intentions into what appear as ordinary everyday mundane things
and mundane spaces. McGuire speaks of her long-fermenting, personal
and intellectual preoccupation with trying to “comprehend individuals’
religions-as-practiced, in all their complexity and dynamism” (p. 5). This
book represents the insights and synthesis of that journey. It draws heavily
on McGuire’s previous research interviews with Catholic peace-and-jus-
tice activists in the 1960s, with Catholic charismatics in the 1970s, with
individuals involved in nonmedical healing practices in the 1980s, and
more recently, interviews with middle-class Texas Latinas. McGuire also
engages other historical and sociological studies that complement her in-
terest in the “invisible elements” (p. 17) that make lived religion far more
diverse, multifaceted, and contradictory than is typically recognized, she
argues, “by scholars of religion, especially sociologists” (p. 4). Thus
McGuire elaborates on the need for sociologists to reconceptualize the
categories and boundaries that inform how they think about and study
religion (chaps. 1 and 2).
As part of her broad canvass of lived religion, McGuire discusses what
is frequently called “popular religion,” especially associated with Hispanic
This content downloaded from 132.177.229.130 on November 16, 2017 12:00:38 PM
All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).
Book Reviews
925
Catholics (e.g., home altars; chap. 3), but she also makes a strong case
for the existence of parallel religious practices among Southern white
evangelicals (chap. 4). Thus she argues, “clothing, pictures and posters,
jewelry, coffee mugs and bumper stickers [connect domestic space with
the divine and] also serve to convey both a message about religion and
about the religious identity of the user” (p. 78). McGuire gives her most
sustained attention to the significance of bodies in lived religion. “Bodies
matter,” she reminds the reader time and again; “Spirituality fully involves
people’s material bodies, not just their minds, or spirits . . . and not just
bodies in the abstract [but] real bodies” (p. 97). Thus McGuire emphasizes
that “lived religion is embodied” (p. 118); it happens in and through human
bodies, in various bodily states (e.g., of health, pregnancy, disability, suf-
fering), body postures and movements, and body practices and perfor-
mances (working, eating, singing, etc.; chap. 5). In particular, McGuire
elaborates on the role of an embodied spirituality in personal healing and
wholeness (chap. 6). Rejecting the institutional differentiation between
medicine and religion and the further differentiation among medical spe-
cialties (pp. 133–37), McGuire argues for a holistic understanding of bod-
ies, one that integrates rather than sharply separates physical and spiritual
well-being. She draws attention to the significance of an array of embodied
spiritual practices in individuals’ everyday routines, including, for ex-
ample, the laying on of hands, expressive dance, meditation, yoga, cen-
tering, simple purification rituals, and the ritualistic use of symbols such
as circles and chains to signify bodies’ location in space and individuals’
mind-body-spirit interconnectedness with one another, nature, and the
universe as a whole (pp. 138–42). McGuire highlights how such practices
are experienced as simultaneously addressing physical, mental, and spir-
itual needs; the lived religion of these individuals means that “wholeness
and holiness were just two ways of thinking about the same thing” (p.
140). Individuals who take a holistic approach to health and healing and
who find such an approach effective are likely, McGuire argues, to have
little faith in either institutionalized medicine or institutionalized religion
(p. 145).
McGuire’s focus on religion and spirituality as embodied experiences
leads her to give special attention to “gendered spiritualities” both his-
torically (e.g., the origins of Christian Science) and in contemporary forms
of self-identity exploration and transformation (chap. 7). Although gen-
erally affirming the emancipatory power of embodied spiritualities,
McGuire is also sensitive to how body practices and rituals reflect and
express power relationships. Thus she highlights how a largely masculine
“virtuoso spirituality” (e.g., some Christian pilgrimages [pp. 173–74]; fra-
ternal brotherhoods; Promise Keepers [pp. 175–77]) is used to reproduce
exclusionary gender and other social hierarchies (p. 173). The domesti-
cation of spiritual practices, moreover, although beyond the control of
church elites, can nonetheless reproduce “harmful” patriarchal expecta-
tions regarding women’s inequality. McGuire notes, for example, that
This content downloaded from 132.177.229.130 on November 16, 2017 12:00:38 PM
All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).
American Journal of Sociology
926
Mexican American communities’ popular religious celebration of daugh-
ters’ coming-of-age promotes a heavily traditional understanding of
women’s roles as wives and mothers (p. 54). Other “destructive spiritu-
alities,” McGuire argues can be found in the hate-orientation embodied
in Ku Klux Klan practices (pp. 116–17).
McGuire’s thoughtful, intellectually engaging, and well-written book
is a welcome addition to the analysis of the prevalence of religion and
spirituality in everyday practices. Beyond religion, many readers will ben-
efit from her focused attention to the body, something that sociologists
really only began to take seriously in recent decades. The eclectic diversity
of the practices that McGuire sees as comprising lived religion/spirituality
will undoubtedly make some scholars wonder whether some practices are
more consequential than others, and how—as sociologists tied to insti-
tutional expectations of quality research—these outcomes should be ap-
prehended and understood. Additionally, McGuire’s interest in spotlight-
ing the religious diversity that exists outside of religious institutions leads
her to marginalize the diversity, contradictions, and multiple meanings
that are found too in institutional religious settings and in sociological
analyses of that complexity. This has the unintended effect of suggesting
that religious institutions contribute little to “faith and practice in every-
day life.” Nevertheless, McGuire succeeds in making visible the many
hybrid sources of religious community and commitment that might oth-
erwise remain beyond the gaze of scholarly attention.
Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey. By
Sultan Tepe. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2008. Pp. 432.
$39.95.
Ari Adut
University of Texas at Austin
Israel and Turkey, the two democracies of the Middle East, also have
historical roots in secular nationalism. And they have both recently wit-
nessed a dramatic increase in their religious votes. Shas (International
Organization of Torah-Observant Sephardic Jews) won 17 seats in the
May 1999 elections to become the third-largest political formation in the
Knesset and has remained a central player in Israeli politics. The religious
florescence in politics has been even more marked in Turkey as the JDP
(Justice and Development Party) garnered 34.31% of the total vote in
2002 and 47% five years later in a landslide victory. Turkey’s main na-
tionalist party, the NAP (National Action Party), has also Islamicized
ideologically in the last decade and has increased its popular appeal.
Beyond Sacred and Secular is an exploration of the parallels and dif-
ferences of politicized religion in Israel and Turkey. It is full of important
insights not only about the religious parties in these two countries but
This content downloaded from 132.177.229.130 on November 16, 2017 12:00:38 PM
All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).


Review of M. McGuire, Lived Religion

UNH Scholars' Repository

University of New HampshireUniversity of New Hampshire Scholars' RepositorySociology Scholarship Sociology11-1-2009Review of M. McGuire, Lived ReligionMichele M. DillonUniversity of New Hampshire, Durham, Michele.Dillon@unh.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/soc_facpubThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Sociology Scholarship by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For moreinformation, please contact nicole.hentz@unh.edu.Recommended CitationAmerican Journal of Sociology. 2009. Review of M. McGuire, Lived Religion (Oxford University Press, 2008).American Journal of Sociology924They will discover how Appalachian state legislatures have attempted todrive snake handling underground.In many ways, the proper title of this book should be “them that criticizethem that believe.” If Hood and Williamson had managed to forget thecritics and shake off their instinctive defensiveness, they could have beenconsiderably more successful in advancing our understanding of the smallnumber of people intent on taking very seriously one specific biblicalpassage.Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. By MeredithMcGuire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. ix290. $19.95(paper).Michele DillonUniversity of New HampshireMeredith McGuire’s Lived Religion richly endows an expanding academicliterature highlighting the relevance of religious-spiritual practices thatare typically excluded from the received view of what counts as religionand spirituality. For historians, this has meant engagement in researchthat revises standard narratives of, for example, early colonial religionand reassessing Puritan beliefs and habits. For sociologists, it generallyentails making visible the myriad ways in which religion exists outsidethe boundaries and categories of orthodoxy established by religious in-stitutions and translated by sociologists into standardized, quantitativemeasures of belief and practice. Instead, McGuire and other scholars arguefor a focus on individuals and how they variously inject spiritual meaningsand intentions into what appear as ordinary everyday mundane thingsand mundane spaces. McGuire speaks of her long-fermenting, personaland intellectual preoccupation with trying to “comprehend individuals’religions-as-practiced, in all their complexity and dynamism” (p. 5). Thisbook represents the insights and synthesis of that journey. It draws heavilyon McGuire’s previous research interviews with Catholic peace-and-jus-tice activists in the 1960s, with Catholic charismatics in the 1970s, withindividuals involved in nonmedical healing practices in the 1980s, andmore recently, interviews with middle-class Texas Latinas. McGuire alsoengages other historical and sociological studies that complement her in-terest in the “invisible elements” (p. 17) that make lived religion far morediverse, multifaceted, and contradictory than is typically recognized, sheargues, “by scholars of religion, especially sociologists” (p. 4). ThusMcGuire elaborates on the need for sociologists to reconceptualize thecategories and boundaries that inform how they think about and studyreligion (chaps. 1 and 2).As part of her broad canvass of lived religion, McGuire discusses whatis frequently called “popular religion,” especially associated with HispanicThis content downloaded from 132.177.229.130 on November 16, 2017 12:00:38 PMAll use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).Book Reviews925Catholics (e.g., home altars; chap. 3), but she also makes a strong casefor the existence of parallel religious practices among Southern whiteevangelicals (chap. 4). Thus she argues, “clothing, pictures and posters,jewelry, coffee mugs and bumper stickers [connect domestic space withthe divine and] also serve to convey both a message about religion andabout the religious identity of the user” (p. 78). McGuire gives her mostsustained attention to the significance of bodies in lived religion. “Bodiesmatter,” she reminds the reader time and again; “Spirituality fully involvespeople’s material bodies, not just their minds, or spirits . . . and not justbodies in the abstract [but] real bodies” (p. 97). Thus McGuire emphasizesthat “lived religion is embodied” (p. 118); it happens in and through humanbodies, in various bodily states (e.g., of health, pregnancy, disability, suf-fering), body postures and movements, and body practices and perfor-mances (working, eating, singing, etc.; chap. 5). In particular, McGuireelaborates on the role of an embodied spirituality in personal healing andwholeness (chap. 6). Rejecting the institutional differentiation betweenmedicine and religion and the further differentiation among medical spe-cialties (pp. 133–37), McGuire argues for a holistic understanding of bod-ies, one that integrates rather than sharply separates physical and spiritualwell-being. She draws attention to the significance of an array of embodiedspiritual practices in individuals’ everyday routines, including, for ex-ample, the laying on of hands, expressive dance, meditation, yoga, cen-tering, simple purification rituals, and the ritualistic use of symbols suchas circles and chains to signify bodies’ location in space and individuals’mind-body-spirit interconnectedness with one another, nature, and theuniverse as a whole (pp. 138–42). McGuire highlights how such practicesare experienced as simultaneously addressing physical, mental, and spir-itual needs; the lived religion of these individuals means that “wholenessand holiness were just two ways of thinking about the same thing” (p.140). Individuals who take a holistic approach to health and healing andwho find such an approach effective are likely, McGuire argues, to havelittle faith in either institutionalized medicine or institutionalized religion(p. 145).McGuire’s focus on religion and spirituality as embodied experiencesleads her to give special attention to “gendered spiritualities” both his-torically (e.g., the origins of Christian Science) and in contemporary formsof self-identity exploration and transformation (chap. 7). Although gen-erally affirming the emancipatory power of embodied spiritualities,McGuire is also sensitive to how body practices and rituals reflect andexpress power relationships. Thus she highlights how a largely masculine“virtuoso spirituality” (e.g., some Christian pilgrimages [pp. 173–74]; fra-ternal brotherhoods; Promise Keepers [pp. 175–77]) is used to reproduceexclusionary gender and other social hierarchies (p. 173). The domesti-cation of spiritual practices, moreover, although beyond the control ofchurch elites, can nonetheless reproduce “harmful” patriarchal expecta-tions regarding women’s inequality. McGuire notes, for example, thatThis content downloaded from 132.177.229.130 on November 16, 2017 12:00:38 PMAll use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).American Journal of Sociology926Mexican American communities’ popular religious celebration of daugh-ters’ coming-of-age promotes a heavily traditional understanding ofwomen’s roles as wives and mothers (p. 54). Other “destructive spiritu-alities,” McGuire argues can be found in the hate-orientation embodiedin Ku Klux Klan practices (pp. 116–17).McGuire’s thoughtful, intellectually engaging, and well-written bookis a welcome addition to the analysis of the prevalence of religion andspirituality in everyday practices. Beyond religion, many readers will ben-efit from her focused attention to the body, something that sociologistsreally only began to take seriously in recent decades. The eclectic diversityof the practices that McGuire sees as comprising lived religion/spiritualitywill undoubtedly make some scholars wonder whether some practices aremore consequential than others, and how—as sociologists tied to insti-tutional expectations of quality research—these outcomes should be ap-prehended and understood. Additionally, McGuire’s interest in spotlight-ing the religious diversity that exists outside of religious institutions leadsher to marginalize the diversity, contradictions, and multiple meaningsthat are found too in institutional religious settings and in sociologicalanalyses of that complexity. This has the unintended effect of suggestingthat religious institutions contribute little to “faith and practice in every-day life.” Nevertheless, McGuire succeeds in making visible the manyhybrid sources of religious community and commitment that might oth-erwise remain beyond the gaze of scholarly attention.Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey. BySultan Tepe. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2008. Pp. 432.$39.95.Ari AdutUniversity of Texas at AustinIsrael and Turkey, the two democracies of the Middle East, also havehistorical roots in secular nationalism. And they have both recently wit-nessed a dramatic increase in their religious votes. Shas (InternationalOrganization of Torah-Observant Sephardic Jews) won 17 seats in theMay 1999 elections to become the third-largest political formation in theKnesset and has remained a central player in Israeli politics. The religiousflorescence in politics has been even more marked in Turkey as the JDP(Justice and Development Party) garnered 34.31% of the total vote in2002 and 47% five years later in a landslide victory. Turkey’s main na-tionalist party, the NAP (National Action Party), has also Islamicizedideologically in the last decade and has increased its popular appeal.Beyond Sacred and Secular is an exploration of the parallels and dif-ferences of politicized religion in Israel and Turkey. It is full of importantinsights not only about the religious parties in these two countries butThis content downloaded from 132.177.229.130 on November 16, 2017 12:00:38 PMAll use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).

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