Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity
This article aims to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the religious lifestyles of practicing female Roman Catholics in Belgium. I explore how these Catholic believers manage to stay in touch with their faith and faith community in times of crisis when physical and real-life contact...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Religions |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/7/494 |
| _version_ | 1797526219979227136 |
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| author | Eline Huygens |
| author_facet | Eline Huygens |
| author_sort | Eline Huygens |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article aims to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the religious lifestyles of practicing female Roman Catholics in Belgium. I explore how these Catholic believers manage to stay in touch with their faith and faith community in times of crisis when physical and real-life contact is very limited. In this article, I draw on in-depth interviews conducted via Zoom, carried out in the framework of my current ethnographic research project. The empirical results show how Catholic women grappled with the multiple lockdowns during the last year and a half, and how the lockdowns led to severe changes in their religious practices and routines. Many believers had to find alternative possibilities and modalities in order to preserve continuity with their religious pre-COVID-19 lives. Throughout the article, I intend to map their practices and strategies. I will argue that inquiring how religion and religious practices are performed during a pandemic can contribute to the flourishing and timely scholarship on digital and online religion and it also provides us with further insights in the performativity, materiality, and embodiment of religion. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T09:26:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e9fe8c0826e24f588343793eb486bbd6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T09:26:07Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj.art-e9fe8c0826e24f588343793eb486bbd62023-11-22T04:49:21ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442021-07-0112749410.3390/rel12070494Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and PerformativityEline Huygens0Centre for Research on Culture and Gender, Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, BelgiumThis article aims to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the religious lifestyles of practicing female Roman Catholics in Belgium. I explore how these Catholic believers manage to stay in touch with their faith and faith community in times of crisis when physical and real-life contact is very limited. In this article, I draw on in-depth interviews conducted via Zoom, carried out in the framework of my current ethnographic research project. The empirical results show how Catholic women grappled with the multiple lockdowns during the last year and a half, and how the lockdowns led to severe changes in their religious practices and routines. Many believers had to find alternative possibilities and modalities in order to preserve continuity with their religious pre-COVID-19 lives. Throughout the article, I intend to map their practices and strategies. I will argue that inquiring how religion and religious practices are performed during a pandemic can contribute to the flourishing and timely scholarship on digital and online religion and it also provides us with further insights in the performativity, materiality, and embodiment of religion.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/7/494Roman CatholicismRoman Catholic womenCOVID-19Belgiumreligious practiceslived religion |
| spellingShingle | Eline Huygens Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity Religions Roman Catholicism Roman Catholic women COVID-19 Belgium religious practices lived religion |
| title | Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity |
| title_full | Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity |
| title_fullStr | Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity |
| title_short | Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity |
| title_sort | practicing religion during a pandemic on religious routines embodiment and performativity |
| topic | Roman Catholicism Roman Catholic women COVID-19 Belgium religious practices lived religion |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/7/494 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT elinehuygens practicingreligionduringapandemiconreligiousroutinesembodimentandperformativity |